Knockout
by Ray Lou
Summary: (MOVED TO A3O) AU - Eren joins the Keith Shardis Self Defense Academy as part of a deal with Armin. For the rest of the summer he has one-on-one sessions with the district's best martial artist. The two butt heads and stir fires in each other that have never been lit before. (MOVED TO A3O)
1. Chapter 1

Prologue: June 19, 2008

* * *

"Keith Shadis Self Defense Academy," Eren read the outdoor business sign with the same blandness as its font. "Sounds like shit."

He stood in front of the double door entrance with his friend, Armin, and his foster sister, Mikasa. He leaned his bike against the half wall that separated the building from the parking lot. Armin had called him and Mikasa over to check out something "breath-taking" that they "totally had to see." The building looked like all the others in downtown Trost: unoriginal and heavily blinded.

Mikasa hadn't said anything. She was locking her bike in the bike rack. "Eren, lock yours up too. I'm not doing it for you."

"But what are we doing here?" Eren walked his bike to the rack and locked it next to Armin's.

"This school is said to be the best in the district," Armin breathed in an excited rush. "Its best students are training inside right now and you need to see them. They're amazing."

"I don't really care about martial arts," Eren said, but he let Armin pull him by the wrist to the door. Mikasa followed behind them, her footsteps quiet as always.

"It's not like the other schools. They don't have belt levels or specific curriculum. It's really cool." Armin let go of Eren to pull open the door.

A blast of cold air smacked Eren in the face. He squinted his eyes against the air flow, expecting to see whatever it was that Armin called "breath-taking". He had given Armin the benefit of the doubt. What he saw didn't live up to it.

Straight ahead from the entrance was a matted floor that took up the entire room. There was a closed door on the left labeled "OFFICE" in sharp red letters. Along the wall on the right were wooden benches with bulky equipment bags and shoes shoved underneath. The wall across from the benches was covered with a mirror. At the top, in the center of the mirror, was a laminated poster with the words of a student pledge typed out in capital letters. The wall across the entrance had shelves filled with equipment such as cushioned pads and weaponry. To the right of the shelves was a door-less arch that reached to the benched wall.

Eren could hear shouts and slaps and smacks through the arch. "Is this it?" he asked.

Someone jabbed him in the side with an elbow. He glared at Mikasa. "What the heck!"

She bobbed her slightly to the left. On Eren's other side wasn't Armin, rather a tall, bald man with intense eyes. The dark circles around his eyes were what got to Eren.

"Who are you?" If his looks were frightening, then the man's voice was downright terrifying.

"Are you the headmaster?" Armin asked with only a touch of fear in his voice.

"Keith Shardis." The man nodded. He rolled his steely gaze at Eren, making the boy feel like he was rapidly shrinking into the ground.

"We're here to see the Wings of Freedom," Armin said.

"The pride of joy of this establishment." Keith nodded, eyes glinting with pride for his students – or hatred for Eren. It was hard to tell. His voice wasn't the type Eren could distinguish emotions from. The man probably sounded the same when he was criticizing his students. "They just began warming up. Sit on the benches, and do not interfere with their training."

"Yes sir." Armin bowed his head.

"Hmmmph." Keith went to his office, and then said, "Girl, what is your name?"

"Mikasa, sir."

"Nice elbow strike."

#

"Maybe you should join," Armin said in low volume. "I've never seen him compliment a non-student before."

"Because not many non-students attack people," Eren said, turning with a heated look at Mikasa.

"I'm sorry, Eren. Did I hurt you?"

Eren sniffed and snapped his head forward.

There were a few other people watching. Eren counted three adults, two children, and two teenagers. All but the kids sat spaced from each other; only the kids appeared to be on close terms. Eren and his companions squeezed together between a teenager and a kid.

Eren didn't see anything special about the warm up. Tall punching bags were set up in a circle. The students, dressed in sweats instead of uniforms, shuffled from one bag to another in two lines. One line circled the outside of the ring, the other circled the inside. The slaps Eren had heard in the lobby were the sounds of fists, elbows, and legs striking the bags. The deep smacks were the sounds of the bag's water filled bases tipping up and landing from the force of the strikes. The shouts were the sounds the students made right before they struck.

"They're strong," Mikasa said. "And look at their footwork."

"You can use footwork to fake out opponents and to create a path for a technique layup," Armin said. It sounded like he was reading out of a book in his head.

"Did you research this?" Eren leaned forward to look directly into Armin's face.

"Absolutely."

Eren wondered if Armin was considering signing up for a class. He couldn't imagine Armin with his fists up, legs lashing at an opponent's stomach. However, he could clearly see Armin getting beaten up and apologizing to the opponent for being a worthless target.

The students rolled the bags to the wall. There were about twenty of them, most of whom were teenagers. Armin explained that the Wings of Freedom was a selective class of the best students in the school. They competed against the best of other schools in tournaments that went from the district level to the national level.

Students partnered off to spar. "No pads?" Eren observed out loud. "Won't they hurt each other?"

"At this level you're expected to have a lot of control. But if you do get injured, it's probably your fault," Armin said. He sounded guilty, as if he had anything to do with the harshness of the reality.

Eren watched one a girl swing a hell of a hook at her opponent's ear. Her opponent ducked just enough to clear it.

"Jeez. They'll kill each other," Eren said.

"Oi!" Someone shouted. "No head attacks unless you've got mouth guards."

"Yes ma'am!" the class barked.

Eren flitted his attention between each duo as they grabbed his attention. He watched two boys go at it with the ferocity of a true battle. Something smacked the ground, and his attention jumped to two girls who had taken the fight to the ground.

A boy swung multiple punches at his opponent's torso, getting closer and closer, and then clinched onto his opponent's chest.

Another boy swept his opponent off their feet.

A girl threw a punch at her opponent's chest. Her opponent parried it, spun around to her back, kicked the back of a knee in, and wrapped her arms around her opponent's neck. She did something that made her opponent tap out.

He watched different body parts, seeing how they moved in relation to other parts. Some students were on the tips of their toes. They rolled back onto their heels when they spun around attacks, sometimes rolling of their opponent's bodies with liquid grace.

A short boy, possibly the shortest, was kept at a distance by his opponent's long legs. He was waiting for an opening. Eren leaned forward. He could see the boy's narrow eyes calculating, his hands loosely protecting his face. He stepped in, his opponent's leg already chambered for a kick.

Eren squeezed his fists. What the hell was the boy doing?

The opponent swept his leg for the boy's unprotected torso.

It happened in a blur.

The boy dropped into the splits and immediately somersaulted, planting his feet into his opponent's crotch.

"Levi!" The opponent went down on his side.

Several duos stopped fighting to check on the boy. Eventually everyone stopped fighting. Someone announced a water break. Students went to their bags squished under the benches. The bags were so big and bulky that they went all the way to the benches lined on the other floor.

Eren peaked between the gaps of students walking in front of him.

Mikasa leaned in to whisper in Eren's ear, "I knew you'd like it."

"It's interesting, all right? That kid got nailed in the crotch."

"It happens all the time," a student said as he squatted in front of Eren. Eren parted his legs so that the student could pull out his water bottle. He chugged down loud swallows and made a long content sigh. He looked over his shoulder at the fallen kid. "The guy who kicked him is tiny for his age. He thinks it gives him the right to deal cheap blows when he's up against tall people."

Eren watched the boy shrug as someone coolly reprimanded him.

"How old is he?"

"Fifteen."

"Damn! He _is_ short!"

The short boy snapped his head in Eren's direction. His eyes burned with a black flame that Eren could feel across the entire floor.

Armin looked oblivious. He was staring at the crumpled boy on the ground with more concern than anyone in the room. Not even the people on the bench looked worried. The kids were giggling and the teenagers were texting. The adults looked sympathetic.

The boy in front of them put his water away. "How old are you kids?"

"Ten," Mikasa said, "but Eren acts like he's eight."

"Hey!"

"Two years difference isn't that much," the boy said with smiling eyes.

"The mentality has a big difference," Armin said. He opened his mouth, probably to start a lecture on child psychology or whatever it was called.

Eren cleared his throat and Armin shut his mouth.

"Are you guys interested in signing up with the school? We have classes for kids your age."

"We're just here to see you guys," Armin said. "We heard so much about your team that we had to come see you train."

Eren blushed. Armin made it sound like they were obsessive fans or something. He didn't want to discredit Armin, but he didn't want to sound like a weirdo in front of a talented fighter.

"That's great! You should watch our tournaments. We could really use the support." The boy stood, and Eren felt dwarfed in the boy's shadow.

The sparring resumed after a minute. The short boy's opponent sat off to the side with a stress ball in each hand.

Eren almost didn't notice the man who stepped onto the floor. Armin whispered in his ear, "That's the lead instructor of the team." Eren passed it on to Mikasa who nodded.

The short boy was the first to notice the man. "Captain Erwin on floor. Attention!" His voice was too big for his tiny body.

The class faced the man, their bodies erect and hands in stiff salutes instead of the bows Eren expected. The salutes were strange too. Their put their right hands in an upside fist against their chest and their left fist on their back.

Erwin mirrored the salute. "Get your gear on."

"Yes sir!"

The students pulled their bags onto the floor and dumped out protective gear.

_Finally._ Eren smirked. Now they could go at their opponents with full force.

"Eren, we have to go," Mikasa said. She held her phone out to show Eren the time. "Our curfew's almost up."

_And when everything was starting to get good._ Eren huffed.

#

"…you wouldn't believe how awesome they were, throwing punches and doing somersaults!" Eren shoved a spoonful of chowder into his mouth and swallowed it whole. He choked on the potatoes and clam. Mikasa whacked his back. "They didn't even wear uniforms! They wore sweats like they were jogging or somethi-" Eren coughed.

"Chew, Eren. You're going to choke to death," his mother said from the sink.

"You're so enthusiastic about it. Just like I predicted," Mikasa said.

"Shut up." Eren spooned down the rest of his chowder. "Gosh that was great. Thanks, Mom."

"You want to join," Mikasa said.

"No I don't." Except Eren had been considering it while he peddled home. If he got skilled enough, he could join the team and travel across the nation to battle against other schools.

"If you really want to, I'm sure your father would sign you up. You too, Mikasa. It's certainly a helpful thing to learn in a dangerous world." She finished rinsing off dishes and started drying them.

Mikasa carried her bowl and Eren's to the sink and soaped them up. "I'd join if you did," Mikasa said.

"I'm not joining."

"You might like it," his mother said.

"That's what I told him."

"I don't want to join."

"Think about it."

Mikasa looked at him. "What if Armin joined?"

"Armin would get his ass handed to him."

"Language," his mother scolded in a mild voice. She knew that Eren never cleaned his vocabulary out, but as a parent, it was her job to try. Eren felt sorry for her. How did parents feel when their ten year old kid spewed dirty language daily?

Eren's father walked into the kitchen. "Is that chowder I smell?"

"Your favorite," his mother chirped.

"Eegh," Eren said when his parents kissed.

His father helped himself to a large bowl of chowder. "Carla, stop cleaning for once and eat with us."

"With you," Eren corrected. "Me and Mikasa already ate."

"Mikasa and I," his father said, looking up from his glasses like a menacing nerd. Eren laughed.

"Grisha, Eren is thinking of signing up for martial arts classes," his mother said. She sat next to Eren, and Mikasa took the seat in front of him.

"That's wonderful. Why don't you sign them up tomorrow?"

"I don't want to," Eren said. The more he thought of it, the more he didn't want to. It had sounded fun at first, but the effort and pain that would go into it wasn't appealing. Eren also had a hard time accepting others as stronger than him. He didn't want to deal with feeling inferior to younger or shorter opponents. The short fifteen year old boy popped in his thoughts. He shuddered. "I'd rather play a team sport." That way if he lost, he could blame the whole team.

"You'll make more friends," Mikasa said. "It won't be just you, me, and Armin."

"I'll make enemies."

"And this is why you don't have friends," his father said.

"It's not healthy to spend your time with only two people," his mother added.

How did they go from talking about martial arts to Eren's shitty social life?

"I'm not listening." Eren opened the door to the garage.

"Where are you going?"

"Eren, get back here."

"I'll come back when I want to." Eren let the door slam behind him. He smashed his helmet on his head and opened the garage.

Mikasa opened the kitchen door. "What are you doing?"

"Going for a ride." He kicked back his bike's mount spike.

"I'm coming with you."

Eren pedaled into the evening.

#

Armin answered his front door, his hair pinned back with pink clips. "What are you doing here?"

"My parents pissed me off so I came here. Mikasa followed. Want to go biking somewhere?" Eren asked.

"Sure! My parents are on date night so I can sneak out." Armin grinned. This probably was the most badass thing he had done in a long time. Eren allowed him the pleasure of feeling rebellious and didn't tease him for it.

The trio mutually agreed to bike on the Maria forest trail. It connected Shiganshina to Trost and was a popular attraction on weekends when couples went for romantic strolls and families went on picnics. It was Thursday so it wasn't very busy.

Eren zigzagged between Armin and Mikasa, laughing when Mikasa scolded him for being so careless. They reached the end of the trail and headed back. Halfway back they took a break and walked their bikes into a clearing.

They often met here to talk about school and life. Armin would help Eren with his math homework and Mikasa would remind Armin to avoid discussing politics with other kids.

They all had their own rocks to sit on. In order from biggest to smallest were Eren's, Mikasa's, and Armin's.

"My parents want me to sign up for martial arts," Eren said after they sat on their respective rocks. "I said I didn't want to and they brought up my lack of friends." He slid off his rock. "Is it really that bad to have only two friends?"

"Not if they love you," Armin said. "What's better: having a lot of friends or a few best friends?"

"Having both," Mikasa said.

Armin sighed and Eren laughed. He looked at his friends and thought, who cared what his parents thought? So what if he didn't have as many friends as the other kids his age? Mikasa and Armin were great. They were amazing and that was why he never felt lonely.

Mikasa told Armin about how he shouldn't have snuck out of his house. Eren tilted his head back and stared at the evening sky. He closed his eyes.

It was nice, he thought, how the world seemed peaceful when everything was still.

He opened his eyes and looked at the swaying tips of the forest trees. They were so tall, they looked like they were touching the sky. They moved like fingers scraping against the deep blue of the early night. Scraping? Eren furrowed his eyebrows. What in the world-

The earth jerked. Eren's back slipped off the rock and he landed on his side. He could feel the earth shaking under his hands.

Mikasa knelt at his side and pushed him down. "Hey! Mikasa!"

"Stay down!"

"Mikasa! Eren!" Armin fell on top of Mikasa.

"Stay down!" Mikasa growled.

The earth shook harder. He grasped Mikasa's hand. He grabbed Armin's and squeezed both of their hands, praying for the shaking to end.

Everything was roaring. It sounded like the earth was screaming.

Something cracked.

Armin pressed his body into Mikasa's. Mikasa pressed hers into Eren. They stayed like that for the rest of the shaking.

Long minutes passed, and Mikasa wouldn't let them get up. There were several more shakes, weaker than the previous ones – and then all was still.

They slowly sat up, panting as if they had physically exerted themselves. Eren was sure that their hearts were all beating rapidly. He squeezed his hand over his chest. His heart seemed like it was going to explode right out of his chest.

Armin was the first to stand. He leaned heavily on Eren's rock, blue eyes wide. "Earthquake," he said. "A big one. A really big one."

"Holy shit. The Big One everyone talked about?" Eren's head swam. He tried to stand, but Mikasa pushed him back down. "How strong do you think it was?"

"I-I don't know."

"We have to go home." Eren stood and when Mikasa reached for him and told him to stay down, he used her body as a prop.

His knees regained complete strength by the time he reached his bike. During the quake the bikes rattled hard, but none looked like they had suffered damage. He swung onto his bike and fell off.

"Eren!" Armin lifted the bike off Eren. "You can't ride like this."

"My parents-"

"Are fine. This earthquake couldn't have caused that much damage."

"You're trembling," Mikasa said. "You need to sit."

"I need to go home." Eren ripped Armin's hands from his bike. He pushed off, almost tipping over.

He didn't look back to see if Mikasa was following; he knew she was.

Everything passed in a blur. He was vaguely aware of some damaged houses and cars stranded in the middle of streets. He remembered hearing a baby crying and a mother trying to calm it. He heard paramedics. Saw a store with its windows broken and shelves toppled. Someone covered in red sat on the curb in front of it.

He closed his eyes and went through a streetlight that didn't work. It was getting dark.

Some car alarms were off. A street lamp was crooked. Someone was clamping something against their arm.

"Oh shit. Shit." Eren's stomach twisted. He swerved onto the sidewalk and Mikasa shouted his name. He went back on the street, weaving between cars stalled on the street.

He pulled onto his street. His house looked untouched. The garage door was even open. Everything was alright. His throat bubbled when he laughed and his eyes prickled. Everything was alright.

He dropped his bike on the driveway. He didn't care if his bike got dinged. He just wanted his parents.

The kitchen door wouldn't open. Something was jamming it.

"Move."

Eren backed away and Mikasa wrestled with the doorknob, shoving her body against the door. Something slammed against wood on the other side, and the door opened wide enough for them to wriggle through.

Mikasa removed the stepladder that had fallen between the refrigerator and cabinet. Beyond them was a mess. The glass cabinets had shattered and glasses had tipped out. They tiptoed around the broken glass. The table and chairs had shifted to the end of the room.

"Mom? Dad?" Eren shouted.

"I'll check the rooms. Check outside," Mikasa ordered.

Eren slid open the backyard door. "Hello?" he called.

"Eren," Mikasa said breathlessly. Her hand was stone white against the door frame. Her eyes were uncharacteristically wide with fear, her lips trembling as if she couldn't find the words to say.

"What?" Eren went to her. "What? What is it?" he shouted, tears already in his eyes.

"She – your mom." Mikasa's breath shuddered.

"_WHAT?_" Eren screamed, but he already knew. He could see it in Mikasa's eyes. His mother's body lifeless, her eyes half open, lips parted in her final breath, blood soaking her clothes. Dead.

In person it wasn't that bloody. Only her head was bleeding. His father's pants were soaked with that ugly deep, clotted red. Everything else was accurate.

Eren remembered his father's silence. He remembered the toppled bookshelves and the three wooden steps covered in blood. He remembered Mikasa holding his hand and squeezing tight as if she could lend him the strength to stay on his feet.

Most of all, he remembered how the world didn't seem peaceful when everything was still.

* * *

**A/N: **Beta'd by **imperativa**. This will be a slow build Ereri fic (but not without the sexual tension). The rating will go up.

I tried to make some parallels with this chapter and the _SnK_ plot. If the characters see OOC, that's either because this is how I think some of the characters would act in a modern day society. Mikasa has good control of her emotions because her backstory is emotionally similar to the one in _SnK_.

The next chapter will be a five year skip and Levi will come up.

This is my first _SnK _fanfic. Reviews are super duper appreciated.


	2. Five Years From You

Five Years From You

* * *

Eren flopped over on his mattress. He had kicked the comforter off because even sleeping on it would be suffocation in this heat.

His father didn't want to use the air conditioning before the vents were cleaned, and Eren's bedroom window wouldn't open, so he resorted to using the family's only plug in fan.

He flipped into different positions throughout the night. Every time he woke up he would sleep with his head on the opposite end of the bed. He eventually dropped his pillow on floor and slept against the cold hardwood. He moved to different parts of the floor when the panels under his skin got too warm.

In the morning he was stiff limbed. He woke up earlier than his father and Mikasa and took a long icy shower.

He knew his inability of sleep wasn't solely due to the summer heat. He didn't want to think about what really kept him awake. It was the same thing that kept him awake every June 18th.

#

"Good morning," his father said, glancing up from his weekly magazine when Eren joined him at the table.

"Mmmh," Eren said.

Breakfast was whole wheat waffles, eggs, milk, and freshly cut watermelon. Everything was great except for the waffles that tasted like cardboard soaked with hot water.

His father put the magazine done and looked at Eren over his reading glasses. "So. School's over."

Eren stared drearily at him. "Yeah. It is."

Mikasa entered the kitchen, already dressed in day clothes. She was a morning worm and night owl. Eren didn't obsess over his looks, but he envied how healthy and awake Mikasa always was in the morning; he looked like a zombie who had just crawled out of the coffin.

She smoothed her skirt down and then took her seat. She said her thanks to Eren's father and quietly munched on her waffle.

The kitchen radio, usually on in the mornings, was unplugged. Someone had shoved it behind the paper towel roll and the tissue box.

"Are you going to the dojo today?" his father asked, but only looked at Mikasa.

"As we do every year. Armin too. Eren, do you want to go with me?"

Eren stared at the crumbs on his plate. "It's better than the cemetery," he said.

"I figured you would go," his father said as he stacked Eren's empty plate over his. "You've gone every year."

Not every year. Just the years when his mother was dead.

#

Eren's body was still stiff when he rolled his bike onto the dojo's front pavement. He locked his bike next to Armin's, rolling his shoulders and gritting his teeth when a muscle spasmed in his lower side.

Mikasa watched him with disapproval. "You slept on the floor again."

"It was too damn hot on my bed."

"It's too hard on your body."

"I slept and that's what matters."

Eren yanked the door open and was greeted with the familiar blast of cool air. The temperature inside was a soothing chill that Eren hoped his air conditioner could copy.

The intermediate adult class had just finished. Students were still clearing off the first floor, shaking hands with instructors as signs of thanks. Eren sided past the ones who were in the walkways, pulling their bags out from underneath the benches.

The Wings of Freedom had just begun their session; he could hear their booming voices reciting the student pledge. Armin was probably sitting on the middle bench that had become theirs over the years, mouthing the words he had memorized in one sitting.

Eren made it through the maze of leaving students when the class finished the second-to-last line. As Eren thought, Armin was saying the words under his breath.

"Did you get a haircut?" Eren slid a hand into the chin-level curtain of blond hair.

Armin leaned away, staying on track with the class. After the pledge finished, the class erupted into loud claps, shoulder slaps, and woots. It was all part of the warm-up. According to Armin's research (aka interviewing students), the pledge was to make the students feel like they were part of something intimate and give them a sense of importance. The noise making was supposed to rile up their energy.

"Did you get a haircut?" Eren repeated after the class lined up in rows and started stretching.

"No. The ends of my hair magically became invisible," Armin deadpanned.

"Huh?"

"It's a joke."

"Oh."

The class was doing ground stretches and Eren immediately picked out a missing student. The class lined up in four rows of four during stretches. The lines went from shortest to tallest, and each student had a designated place. When a student was absent, their spot wasn't filled. It eased the attendance process.

Without the tallest students blocking out the shorter ones, the empty spot stuck out like white against black. The first spot was empty.

Eren pointed this out to his friends. "The short guy's missing."

"The short guy can hear you," a voice said.

The short guy was walking down the hall, wheeling his equipment bag that looked massive compared to his petite body. It was bigger than most of the other bags under the benches and the only one with wheels.

"My name is Levi, not short guy."

Up close, Eren saw how little the man had changed since the five years after the earthquake. Granted, Eren had only seen him from a distance since now, but Levi was still the shortest one on the team. He didn't look as old as he supposedly was.

Levi shoved his bag next to the one under Mikasa's legs. Eren studied Levi's face. He was quite pale, his black eyes accentuated by the shadows under them. For a male, he had rather feminine eyebrows. Full and thin. Eren thought they looked waxed.

"I know you're staring at me," Levi said when he stood. He pinned Eren in place with a sharp glare.

Eren suddenly was conscious of how far he had been leaning forward to get a look at Levi.

"He's your biggest fan here," Mikasa said.

Eren saw how that could be taken as offensive since he, Mikasa, and Armin were the only people in the audience. Levi only stared Eren down with enough concentrated dislike to make Eren feel like he was shrinking.

"Tch." Levi kicked his flip flops next to his bag and then joined his classmates.

"I am not his fan," Eren said to Mikasa.

"Every time we come here, you're watching him."

"You also noticed that he was missing today," Armin said.

"And you guys didn't notice? It was pretty obvious when they were on the ground. There was a huge gap in the front." Eren slouched against the wall, arms folded defensively. "I didn't even know his name until today."

"It's hard to remember names when you're so intensely focused on watching someone," Mikasa said.

"You always watch him," Armin added, nodding with a smile that made Eren want to smash something.

Five visits. This was only his fifth time here in five years. How was it that his friends noticed his attention narrowed down to one person when he didn't even notice it himself? He thought of the other four visits. The details were blurs, but a certain black haired shorty was the clearest one. How did his friends remember that one detail with the 364 days between each visit?

Armin was still smiling, this time as if he knew something intimate about Eren that Eren didn't know himself.

Eren sucked at hiding his emotions, but that didn't keep him from trying to mask his embarrassment with irritation.

He looked at everyone who wasn't Levi. He hoped his friends noticed him giving attention to others, but didn't think that he was doing it deliberately to throw them off his case.

The other students were stimulating to Eren's interest, but no one fulfilled Eren's interest as much as Levi did.

The shorty was certainly something else. He didn't fight with his ferocity worn on his face. He hid it. Unlike the others who had deep furrows between their brows and eyes narrowed in contemplation, Levi's face was relatively relaxed. He danced around his opponent, striking when openings presented themselves to him like an open book. He read into his opponent's attacks, predicted what would come next, and acted upon them with precise timing.

Eren remembered Levi's technique from the previous years. Levi had improved by a lot.

An opponent from each duo cycled to the left. As Levi had shown with his first opponent, he demonstrated his awe-striking technique. It was the same with his third and fourth opponent. What was more striking was how all of his opponents didn't seem bothered with how easily they were played. They went all out on him, but didn't show disappointment when they never landed a strike.

"Last cycle!" someone shouted.

"No!" Levi shouted back. "Two more!"

"Yes sir!"

"Is he leading the class?" Eren asked Armin.

"He's the Captain of the team."

"Wha'?" Levi hardly looked like the captain type. He was too small to command any presence. "I thought the tall blond guy was the captain."

"He gave his position to Levi after getting promoted to a head instructor. He still trains the team, just not as much as before."

Levi swept the legs out of his opponent.

"Levi's really good," Armin said.

"Did they do a lot of tournaments?"

"Didn't you notice the trophies in the lobby?" Mikasa asked. "Or the decals on the window? This dojo has been voted the best dojo in Shiganshina for three consecutive years."

"After the'08 earthquake, a news station interviewed some students about what happened. The dojo suffered some serious internal damage. They interviewed Levi, and you wouldn't believe it, but he literally said that while he was on TV, he might as well promote the dojo."

Eren blanched and Mikasa made a sound akin to a choked off laugh.

"Seriously?"

"Yup." Armin bobbed his head. "There was some controversy around it and it made its round on the internet."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Eren asked and looked at Levi who happened to staring at him at that exact moment. Levi's opponent was on his bottom again.

"I didn't think that you would care; you were going through…yeah, and I didn't think you wanted to – um..." Armin trailed off.

Eren patted Armin's knee.

"Get your gear on for the last round!" Levi shouted.

"Yes sir!"

The students poured off the floor. Eren and his friends folded their legs onto the bench to make it easier for the students to get their bags.

Levi sat next to Mikasa while he shoved his feet into their guards. He smoothed his pant legs out before strapping his shin guards and groin protector on. A half geared up girl skipped to Levi with a chest guard.

"Can I go against you first?" she asked, voice chipper.

"I always beat you." Levi helped strap her chest guard.

"You always beat everyone." She returned the help.

Levi faced Eren as she adjusted the straps. He pressed his thin lips together into a thinner line. "You come here once a year," he said. "Why is that?"

Eren opened his mouth, but the words were stuck in his head and they never formed into complete sentences. He looked at Mikasa. She scrutinized his face, particularly his eyes.

He looked at Armin. The blond put a hand on top of his. "Do you want me to," Armin started.

What _did_ he want his friends to do? Eren chanced a look at Levi.

"I," Eren said in a surprisingly loud voice. He cleared his throat. "I-"

The girl had finished tying the straps on Levi's back. She was standing behind him, a little to the side, and looking at Eren kindly – but expectantly as well.

Why _did_ he visit the dojo annually? The truth was that it just happened. The first anniversary of the earthquake, Eren thought of revisiting all the places he had visited – just 'cause. There wasn't any deep meaning to it. He didn't think there was.

Mikasa and Armin joined him with no spoken reason. They followed him on his new tradition for five years.

And now, it just _was._

"Are you okay?" the girl asked. She was kneeling in front of Eren now, eyes big behind her goggles.

"Huh?" Eren blinked out of his daze.

"Are you going to cry?" Levi asked, close to sounding like a slap on Eren's dignity.

"No!"

Levi held his hands up in surrender.

Some of the students were staring.

"Sorry I asked," Levi said and continued with arming up. "Get on the floor when you're ready," he said without looking at the students who were idly standing by.

"Yes sir!"

Eren sighed and rested his head on the wall. Mikasa gripped his hand. "Do you want to go?"

He shook his head. "I'm fine."

#

Eren's head started to hurt during the final quarter of the class. They were going over defensive grappling techniques that one of the students came up with.

He excused himself to use the bathroom. He splashed sink water on his face and used a paper towel to pat it dry. He was patting his cheek when he opened the door. Levi was leaning against the doorframe.

He tossed the paper towel in the wastebasket by the sink.

"How are you feeling?" Levi asked as Eren stepped out.

Eren looked down at him – literally. Levi was several inches shorter than Eren.

"Don't look down on me," Levi said crossly. "How old are you, thirteen?"

"Fifteen." Eren rubbed his temple. The headache had receded to a soft throb. It was almost as irritating as a full headache. "Um, how old are you?"

"How old do I look?" Levi watched a nearby grappling pair of girls. They were in a complicated cradle, arms and legs positioned precisely. Eyes narrowed in distaste, Levi called out on their technique. "Turn your head to the left, Hannah. Do you want to get choked to death?"

Eren felt cast off as just part of Levi's background. He slipped his hand to the back of his head. Should he go? Levi wasn't looking at him anymore, so he figured that he was dismissed. He shook his head. Dismissed? It seemed that his headache had affected his thoughts. It wasn't like Levi had ordered him to stand there and talk about nothing.

He started back for his friends who were watching him with obvious questions in their eyes.

"Oi," Levi said, a soft snap to his voice. "How old do I look?"

Eren looked over his shoulder. He ran his eyes over Levi's frame quickly. "Uh… seventeen."

He knew that Levi had to be older. He doubted that Levi was twelve five years ago, but he didn't want to take the chance of guessing an age that would offend Levi.

"Close enough." Levi looked pleased – what Eren thought was pleased; the slight furrow in Levi's eyes had smoothed out.

"What was that about?" Armin asked when Eren sat down.

"He asked how I was feeling and then for my age. Then he asked me what age he looks like."

Eren had no idea what any of that conversation meant, or if it even counted as one and not nonsensical small talk.

"It's his way of apologizing for asking a personal question," Mikasa said.

"Why do you think that?" Armin asked.

"It makes sense. Levi doesn't seem like someone who would directly say he's sorry," Mikasa said. A clump of hair as thick as a finger fell in front of her eyes.

"You're right." Eren flicked the hair to the side. "How do you see through your hair like this?"

"I don't."

The class lined up for the end of class. Levi walked in front of them, hands clasped loosely behind his back as he reminded the team about the tournament coming up.

"It's nothing big, just a citywide competition," Armin informed Mikasa and Eren when they looked at him.

"Class dismissed."

Everyone saluted.

#

"Maybe we can go to the tournament," Armin said as the three of them walked out of the dojo.

"Where is it held?" Mikasa asked.

"In Wagner High's gym. We can bike there."

"No," Eren said. He unlocked his bike and the chains clattered to the ground.

"Why not?" Armin picked up the chains and looped them around Eren's bike handle.

Students started exiting, bags slung over their shoulders or held in their hands. The bags looked like they weighed a lot. Like a testament to their strength, some students swung their bags forward and back, some walking without their bodies inclining toward their heavier side.

"It'll be interesting to watch Levi take down other fighters," Mikasa said.

"No."

Eren backed his bike out of the rack. He kicked a leg over it just when the door slammed open and Levi walked through. The fan above the door ruffled his hair, showing the dark shadow of his undercut.

"You shouldn't ride a bike when you have a headache," Levi said. He rolled his bag to the bike rack and rummaged around the small pockets on the side of it.

"You can tell?" Eren asked.

"You look pained." Levi found what he was looking for: a black lanyard with keys.

"That's what he normally looks like," Armin said after peaking at Eren's face. "But do you really have a headache?" he asked Eren.

Eren glared lasers at him when Levi wasn't looking. "It's just a minor ache."

"Eren has ridden a bike in worse conditions, so he's fine," Mikasa said.

Eren smiled his gratitude at her. Anything from Mikasa's mouth sounded like fact.

Levi zipped his bag up completely and stretched his lower back. "Eren, fifteen years old. How about you two? Names and ages."

"We're the same age as Eren. I'm Mikasa and this is Armin."

Levi asked, "You three wouldn't happen to be interested in joining the school, would you?"

"Not really, but I don't know about them," Armin said.

Levi flicked looks between Mikasa and Eren. Was he fishing for new students? Eren wondered. Could it be that the school was running low on revenue?

"I'm interested," Mikasa said and Levi's eyes sparkled. "But I'll join only if Armin or Eren do."

Levi fixated his black eyes on Eren. Eren looked down at Levi's feet, unable to meet the eyes that made him feel like an insect pinned to cardboard.

"I'm not really interested," Eren said.

A shadow passed over Levi's eyes. "That's a shame. You look like someone who would make an excellent fighter. If any of you change your minds, the first week is free."

Levi went into the parking lot, pressing the lock button on his car key and following the sound of his car's beep. "I forgot where I parked," he explained.

Eren and his friends watched in silent shock when Levi pulled out of the lot in a sleek black luxury car.

#

"…_the earthquake measured a 6.8 on the Richter Scale and resulted in the deaths of -"_

Eren turned the TV off. He had seen that documentary last year when it was released, and he had no intention of watching it again.

He lied on the couch and stared at the cottage cheese texture of the ceiling. It had been five years ago, but every June 19th felt like_ that_ day.

The clock was just a minute past the seventh hour. Eighteen more minutes until the earthquake started. Eren watched the minutes tick by.

At seven nineteen he closed his eyes and relived that fateful day. From the first shakes to the last hour of the night, he went over every detail he remembered.

#

The next morning felt like the dead silence that followed a storm. Eren woke up in a sweaty tangle of body parts and his bed cover.

Another anniversary survived. He didn't think it was normal to mourn after his mother after half a decade. He once thought of asking his father if it was healthy to go through the same activities as that day, but decided not to; it might worry his father.

Mikasa was watering the flowers in the kitchen window. His father was plugging the radio into the socket it had always used. Soft rock played after a sharp crack of static.

Eren toasted two frozen waffles and boiled a kettle of water on the stove.

"Any plans for today?" his father asked, clearing the used plates off the table. He and Mikasa had eaten before Eren, as was typical.

"Swimming maybe. Might watch a movie. There's that new Superman movie." Eren looked at Mikasa who had yet to turn around. "Mikasa? Want to watch it with me?"

"Can't," she said. "I'm having dinner with someone."

"A date?" his father asked, perking up just slightly.

"A date?" Eren's voice cracked.

Mikasa tossed a look over her shoulder. "Crackers."

"Shut up." Eren cleared his throat. "But a _date_?"

"It's not a date. It's a free dinner."

Eren almost spewed the tea in his mouth. "That's a date."

"He didn't say it was a date. He asked me if I wanted to eat dinner at Cielos Azules and said he would pay."

"That's a date, Mikasa," his father said and then chuckled.

"Who are you going with?" Eren swiped his waffles out of the toaster onto a napkin. "Do I know him?"

Eren couldn't imagine any boys Mikasa would hang out with. He felt a little jealous that Mikasa wanted to go somewhere without him to spend time with someone else.

Mikasa didn't answer right away. Eren took that to mean that she was embarrassed by the boy. He smiled as he and his father waited for her answer. She probably got asked out by one of the invisible kids from school.

"Jean Kirschstein."

"WHAT?" Eren almost dropped his waffles. "JEAN? Jean the freak?"

"No need to scream," his father said and tossed him a gently disapproving look.

His father didn't sound as horrified as he should have been, considering how much he knew about Jean.

"You can't go out with _him_!" Eren shouted and then lowered his voice when his father made a submissive sigh. "Dad, you can't let her go with him."

"I doubt that even if I told her not to go, she wouldn't listen. Mikasa has a mind of her own."

"I would listen to you, Mr. Jaeger, but I know you won't tell me not to go," Mikasa said.

"But he's a freak! He _stalks_ you," he hissed, clenching his hands in front of his chest for dramatization.

His father was Jean's pediatrician. The creep had seen Mikasa in the doctor's office with Eren and commented on how beautiful her black hair was. When Mikasa and Eren left, the first thing Jean asked Eren's father was who Mikasa was and if she had a boyfriend.

His father had thought it charming and courageous for the young man to talk to Mikasa's parental figure first. Eren thought it was creepy, even more so when he noticed Jean driving past their house almost daily. Jean would slow his speed to below five mph and stare out his open window.

One afternoon, Eren stuck his head out of living room window and threatened to call the cops. Jean had floored it out of there, but he still showed up every few days.

Eren reminded them of Jean's cruising, to which Mikasa rolled her eyes. "He lives on the other side of the block," she said.

What?

"Didn't you know that?" Mikasa asked, eyes round. "Eren?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Eren gripped his hair. "The whole time I thought he was driving here just to cruise the house!"

Mikasa's eyes sparkled with unspoken amusement. "And to think that the whole time I thought you wanted him to take the longer way to his house."

"That means he lives near us. That creep!"

"Please stop shouting. You're giving me a headache."

"He's still a creep, Dad. You have to admit that slowing down in front of the house is creepy."

"I'll admit that is a bit unnerving, but I have known Jean since he was a child-"

"That's what they all say about murderers! 'They're so sweet… They never would have done something like this… I don't understand why they would do it'," Eren intoned in a pitchy, confused voice. "You don't know how he really is, and I think that slowing in front of the house is a red flag."

"You don't know how he really is either," his father pointedly said. "Perhaps he is a young man fallen head over heels for Mikasa."

Mikasa butted in swiftly. "It's nice to hear your concern for me, but I think you're making a big deal out of this. I'll be fine, and who knows. Maybe I'll make friends with him. Though I highly doubt that."

"She'll be fine. _You_ are the one we should worry about. Reckless boy." His father rumpled his hair.

"Hey! Quit it!" Eren smoothed his hair down. He somehow made it worse.

"Go take a shower," his father said. "Your hair is awfully oily."

Eren ripped a bite out of both waffles at once, snatched his cup of tea, and withdrew to his room.

#

Eren played computer games until Armin called him in the evening. He couldn't hear his ringtone because of his headphones, but the bright screen stuck out in his side vision.

He paused the game and answered on the last ring.

"Hey Armin. What's up?" Eren resumed the game.

"Is Mikasa there?"

"Nope." Eren fired a round of bullets into the metal sheet his enemies took refuge behind. "Why don't you call her?"

"I want to talk to both of you."

"Well Mikasa's not here right now. She's on a date with that creepy ass Jean Kirschstein. And guess what? Jean has lived on our block for God knows how long and I've never noticed."

Eren threw a grenade over the tented-in sheet. It exploded, casting the sheet outwards and knocking Eren's player onto her back.

"Jean's a cool guy."

Eren rolled his eyes as his player's health bar truncated to the critical zone. The edges of his screen flashed red. The flashing gave him a headache so he paused the game and refocused his eyes on the doorknob of his shut door.

"Heh. You would say that," Eren said.

"No, he's actually really nice. Funny too. Did something happen between you two in school?"

"Um, _yeah_. Did you forget the fact that we got into a fist fight and a half?" Eren had won the first fight. The second fight had been broken up by a teacher leaving the campus. Eren and Jean were only given warnings the second time.

"I thought you moved on from that."

"You know me. I hold grudges." Eren leaned back into his wooden kitchen chair. "I wish I had a padded chair."

"Huh?"

"Padded chairs. The leather ones you see in offices and conference rooms? The ones that people with high paying salaries sit in."

"What are you talking about?"

"What are _you_ talking about? What did you call me for?"

Armin sighed, "Nevermind."

"Tell me."

"I'll tell you when Mikasa gets back."

"She won't get back until late tonight. Just tell me so I can tell her and then we can discuss whatever it is and then I'll call you back. Okay?"

Armin gave in with a whispery sigh. "Fine… I'm thinking of doing martial arts. But I want to do it with you and Mikasa."

Eren could hear Armin suck in a breath to hold in anticipation.

"No," Eren deadpanned.

Armin released all his breath at once. "Come on!"

"Mikasa might, but I won't." Actually, Eren was certain that Mikasa would sign up. "Why are you interested in it? You don't like violence."

Eren turned his computer screen off and went to his bed.

"It's something new," Armin said in a tiny voice, worried of getting judged. For what, Eren didn't know. Armin knew that Eren supported new interests as long as they didn't pose too much danger.

"Oh, okay. Well, my answer still is no. I'll talk to Mikasa when she gets back."

Armin groaned. The line crackled as if Armin was squeezing the phone in annoyance. "Just do the week trial."

"_You_ do the week trial and see if you like it."

"But Eren-"

"Nope."

"It's healthy! It's good for you and your anger-"

Time froze. Anger? Eren's anger was perfectly under control. "I'm over it."

"You're containing it inside. It's not healthy."

"Containing?" Eren's eyebrow jumped. "It's not contained. It's gone."

Armin blasted forward into unexplored territory. Eren's anger issue from the year after the 'quake was an untouched topic. He said, "You're in denial. Ever since your mother died-"

Eren couldn't lie. He felt offended that Armin thought he needed something to contain his anger. It was long gone anyways. He had gotten over the fact that it wasn't his fault that his mother died in a few months over a year ago.

"Is this why you called me? You want me to do something about my anger so you think that inviting me to some stupid martial arts class will help? Is that it?"

Armin answered quickly. "N-no. In all honesty, Eren, I just want to learn some self-defense. Some neighborhood kids have been heckling me lately and I want to be more prepared."

The anger that had started to fill Eren's veins thickened. "Who? Tell me who and I'll beat them up for you."

Armin chuckled. "I'm flattered, but I don't think you could handle them."

"Then me and Mikasa-"

"They're seniors. I don't think you and Mikasa can handle even one of them. The thing is, they're not just seniors, they have Black Belts in Taekwondo." Armin backtracked, panic seeping in his voice. "No, no, that's not it. They're _2__nd__ and 3__rd__ Degree _Black Belts. I saw the stripes on their belts."

"How are they heckling you?"

"They mostly call me names. It was fine at first, but then they started getting physical."

"They're hurting you?" Eren ground his teeth.

For Pete's sake. Armin looked like a freaking girl with the gentle curves of his face, his long blond hair, his big blue eyes, and his long eyelashes. What boys bullied someone who looked like a pretty Barbie?

"They aren't physical towards me, but they insinuate it as a future possibility. Last week they kicked my garbage cans over when they were in the street for pickup. Yesterday, before I biked to the dojo, one of them drove past me and brandished his kama outside his window."

"Kama?"

"It's a weapon. It looks like a sickle."

"Sickle?"

"It's like a stick with a blade sticking out of the top."

"Like a spear."

Armin became frustrated. It was understandable. To a nerd like Armin, Eren was the definition of stupidity. "The blade sticks out of the side. It's like the Grim Reaper's scythe, but the blade is less curved. It's small enough for someone to wield two of them."

Eren pulled up a picture of it on his phone. "So he threatened you."

"Intimidated, more like. It still scares the crap out of me. I doubt they will escalate to attacking me, but I'm just not sure."

"I don't think learning self-defense will help you. How much experience does a Black Belt have? A _2__nd_or _3__rd_ Degree? A shit ton, that's for sure. It'll take you years – a _decade_ to reach their level."

"That doesn't mean I can't start now. What if I encounter trouble later in high school or in college or after college?"

"I can't tell you what to do, so go ahead and join."

"Do it with me."

Sometimes Armin's motivation to follow things through pissed Eren off the end of his patience.

"I'm a lost cause for your effort. The answer's still a 'no' for me."

Armin was silent. And then when Eren thought that Armin had finally given up, the blond asked, "What if I got Levi to be your instructor?"

"What makes you think that'd change my mind?" Eren didn't think it was a good idea to put him and Levi together. It just didn't sit right with him…

"He's the best fighter in the dojo, possibly the entire district."

…but if Levi was the best, then maybe…

"And what makes you think you can get him to teach me? You've hardly spoken with the guy."

"I can talk to him about it."

Eren doubted that Armin would get far with Levi. It wouldn't hurt to give Armin hope. For someone who got his hopes up easily, Armin didn't cling on to them when they sunk heavily.

"Tell you what, I'll make a deal. You convince Levi to be my personal trainer and I'll sign up for classes," Eren said through a tight lipped smile.

"You've got a deal!"

The chances were slim to none. Eren had nothing to worry about.

#

Scratch that. Eren had everything to worry about.

"_WHAT? _How the _hell_ did you get him to say that?" Eren shouted and sprang off of his bed. It had only been three days since he made the deal with Armin.

"I talked to him," Armin said. Well, duh, Eren thought.

"Uh-huh. What did you bribe him with?"

"He's a full time instructor at the dojo. Well, he's an assistant instructor right now, but he wants to shed the assistant part of his title. In order to do so, he needs to show that he is capable of teaching someone from scratch. I told him about you and he said that it'd be fun to whip you into shape."

Eren's eyes and fingers twitched as Armin explained with the calmness of still water. His vision blurred and red tinted the edges, just like in his shooter game. Armin knew this all along. Armin knew how easy it would be to get Levi to agree. Eren had been fooled.

"You knew all along, didn't you?" Eren asked.

Eren could vividly imagine Levi slashing his back open after failing to stand correctly in a fighting stance.

Armin continued his little lecture without pausing to listen to Eren. "It's only for the summer. Nothing you can't handle. If you really like it, you can continue into the school year."

Eren spluttered. "Wait a sec. I thought you wanted to do classes with me."

"You'll be training off the side while I do the main class. Mikasa, too. I think she'll join now that you're in. Just fill out the forms tomorrow or sometime this week. They close at 2 on Sundays, so it's too late for today."

"I can't believe this." Eren pinched his arm.

"Me either. I'm so excited!"

"Yey yippieyiyah."

"I also told him about your anger issues and he said he can help you with that."

"You did _what_?"

"I gotta go. Dinner's calling me!" Armin clicked off the line.

Eren clenched the phone and glared at it as if it was the epitome of all his problems.

Someone knocked on the door. Mikasa opened it without waiting to be invited in. She held another home phone up. She had been listening in on Eren's conversation.

"I'm in," she said, and Eren chucked the phone at his bed.

* * *

**A/N: **Beta'd by **imperativa**. Thank you **SecretsTellNoLies** and **Cyril** for your thoughtful reviews! :) Many thanks to you two, and to those who faved and followed. I hope I don't disappoint you. Next update might be in early August.

Coming up next: Eren goes to the dojo to sign up for classes. Levi pulls Eren aside for a "little" assessment. It doesn't go well.


	3. That Summer Day

That Summer Day

* * *

Eren had fifteen minutes to change his father's mind. The car's clock ticked another minute. One minute lost to Eren's lack of action. He had to say something now.

His attempts at dissuading Mikasa had all failed. He didn't know why tried. Mikasa always stood by her decisions. Maybe it was because Eren was so desperate to get out. His last chance was with his father.

"I changed my mind," Eren said. "I don't want to do this."

Good. He was calm, in control of displaying his emotions. If anything, acting like a mature fifteen year should help him out.

His father blew air out of his mouth in a tight stream. A tight lipped exhale was a sign that what he wanted to say was inappropriate and would have to be worded differently.

"You never wanted to do this," Mikasa said.

Her fingernails made sharp ticks on her door's wooden panel. It reminded Eren of the time ticking away.

"Isn't this illegal? Forcing a child to do something they don't want to do?"

"You are signing up for these classes whether you like it or not," his father said. He ground out each word, drilling them into Eren's mind.

"But would you trust the secrets of martial arts in the head of a boy like me?"

Eren almost went as far as to bring up his anger. They didn't need another tear filled argument, so Eren held back and left it in the subtext of his words for his father to translate.

"Would you use your martial arts to hurt people?" His father asked.

"Of course not. I mean, I'd try not to."

"Then I trust you."

Eren lolled his head against the corner of the window. It started rolling down, catching his hair in the frame. He jerked his head up, some strands tearing out of his scalp to follow the window.

He rubbed the sore pricks in his scalp and glowered at his father. The window rolled back up.

"Please don't put your head against the window. You're getting oil all over it."

Eren smacked his head against his headrest. "Ugh... Why are you making me do this? Summer is supposed to be a break."

"Summer isn't supposed to be spent cooped up in your room playing video games and watching silly videos."

"Summer isn't about doing things you don't want to do."

"Summer is about trying new things. You have done the same thing every summer. It's time that you venture out and explore other activities."

Eren rolled his eyes back to stare at the smooth fabric of the ceiling. There wasn't any changing his father's mind. He was doomed to a summer as a prop for a man to use to get a job promotion. Worse, he'd actually have to put in an effort to learn. He couldn't bring himself to fail and be the rock that sank a dream.

This summer he would actually have to exert effort to achieve something.

_Effort. Pfft._ Eren chuckled to himself. He hated that word.

#

The chairs in Keith's office were stiff. Well, the ones Eren and Mikasa sat on were. His father's chair was one of the leathery conference chairs that he wanted for his room. Keith's – no, _Master_ Keith's chair was the same.

Eren shifted uncomfortably. The chair's seat was shaped weird. There was a high bump in the middle that lined up with his butt crack. It was higher than the one on his bicycle's seat. Mikasa didn't look bothered by it because she was freaking Ms. Perfect.

Why couldn't Eren have some of her flawlessness? Just enough so he could settle down on a butt shaped chair.

"Don't like the chair, Jaeger?"

Master Keith kept his head angled to read the paperwork on his desk but rolled his eyes up to fix his death look on Eren.

The man's sunken in eyes were as scary as Eren remembered them five years ago. He bobbed his head in firm nods.

"Yes sir."

"Do you know why I have those chairs here?"

Master Keith slid a paper across the table to Eren's father. He pointed at a blank section without looking, eyes pining Eren's head still with needle precision.

"No sir."

"Do you want to know why?"

Master Keith's tone was gentle but full of controlled power. Eren wondered if Master had history in the military. His voice was the rough as bark type that military captains had in movies and video games.

Eren's father slid the paper back. Master pulled his needles out of Eren's eyes to check over the paper.

Eren didn't realize he had been sitting so stiffly until his shoulders drooped forward.

"I guess so, sir."

Master's eyes shot up to catch his when he wasn't expecting it. He gasped and jerked up into a proper posture.

"It's to weed out the weak," Master said.

Eren gulped.

"Sir, Eren spends most of his time in front of his computer at home. His chair's seat is flat," Mikasa said.

"Oh," Master throatily chuckled.

Eren's glares went unseen by Mikasa.

"Mikasa can attend any of the available sections for beginners. There is no limit to how many classes she can take a week. We have several students who come to classes seven days a week." Master handed a yellow sheet of printer paper to Eren's father. "Eren can come to any of sections, but he must attend a minimum of three days a week. Do you have plans for vacation?"

"None," Eren's father said.

"Fantastic." Master nodded at Mikasa. "I remember you, young lady. You threw a beautiful elbow strike. Do you still have it in you?"

"It never left, sir."

Master chuckled, his deep voice reverberating in the small office.

"Excuse me, sir," a new voice said. "Oh. You. What's your name again?"

Levi stood in the open doorway, dressed in navy blue sweats and a gray t-shirt with the Academy logo in black print.

"Eren."

Levi stared at him, eyes difficult to read. He then asked Master, "Sir, can I borrow Eren?"

"We're nearly done with the paperwork, so make it quick."

"Ten minutes," Levi said, beckoning Eren to follow.

#

Eren followed Levi to the second floor. The first floor was taken by a small class of adults working on wrist releases.

Their instructor was the blonde haired man who used to be the Captain of the Wings of Freedom. The man nodded at Levi and only looked at Eren long enough to know that he had been acknowledged.

"Slippers off," Levi said, bare feet padding softly on the mat.

Eren kicked them under a bench. He asked, "What are we doing?"

"A small assessment of your skills."

Levi walked to the front of the floor and dropped into splits. Eren watched Levi's face remain in the same blasé expression in the mirror's reflection.

"Get up here and stretch," Levi said, bothered by Eren's lack of action; Eren was still standing at the edge of the mat.

Eren was going to say that he wasn't dressed for stretching, but looking at his reflection, he saw that he had conveniently worn soccer shorts and a t-shirt. He dug the nail of his middle finger into the pad of his thumb, wondering if it was fate or just bad luck that he had dressed like this.

He sat next to Levi, watching the man's reflection for a change in expression. He was beginning to come to the conclusion that Levi's face was harder to read than Mikasa's. Unlike Mikasa, Levi's darker eyes had a solid look to them. If eyes were the windows to the soul, then Levi had thick curtains over his.

"Did you hear me? Stretch."

"Oh. Sorry."

Eren kicked a leg out to his side and tucked his other leg in, putting his foot against the inside of his thigh. He leaned forward and grabbed the base of his foot with both hands. The stretch burned his hamstring and calves, but Levi's stare burned the pain away.

He held the stretch for half a minute before switching legs. When he folded the first leg he stretched, the burn returned with enough kick to make Eren's eyes bug open. He had overstretched.

Levi inhaled and exhaled deeply, lowering his torso to the mat and stretching his arms toward the mirror.

"Why are we stretching?" Eren asked quietly.

He didn't want to startle Levi whose eyes were closed. He looked like he was focusing on the timing of his breaths.

"For your assessment."

"I know for my assessment, but what are we doing?"

Levi opened his eyes and sat up, still in the splits. "Patience."

Eren could try to stall through the remainder of the ten minutes, but he knew that his father would have no problem with letting him stay over time. There was a little over twenty minutes left until two o'clock. Eren knew that classes ran for an hour each and that the first class started at one. If Levi had a class to instruct then at the earliest, Eren could get his butt out of the dojo at two.

He stretched his arms, rolled his ankles, and wondered what they could accomplish in eight minutes.

Levi brought his feet together in front for a butterfly stretch, pressing the outside of his thighs to the floor.

"Stand up."

Eren kicked his legs out; they felt like coils that had been stretched too far and were slowly winding back.

Levi didn't look like he had any post-stretching pains. He stood with a swift push off the ground and looked at Eren. "Ready?"

"Sure…?"

Eren had one second to think before it happened. Two words, and only two words remained of his fleeting thoughts: _Holy shit_.

He landed bottom first on the ground.

Levi pulled his arm back to his sparring stance, one fist guarding his face and the other his chest.

Eren brought a heavy hand to his face. He patted his nose and cheeks. He hadn't gotten hit. Miraculously, he had fallen just in time to avoid Levi's blinding fast punch.

"What the hell!"

"Be grateful for your quick reaction time. I've lost count of the students I've punched in the face." Levi stepped out of stance. "Stand up."

Eren kept his eyes and mind on Levi.

"Now you're focusing," Levi said and eased back into his stance.

Eren dodged the next punch. And the next. They both were aimed at his face, so all he had to do was duck.

The next punch was a hook aimed at his neck. He ducked lower – and got his feet swept out.

He landed hard.

"You ground yourself by ducking too far. Only duck attacks you can recover from quickly."

Eren stepped back from the next hook, clearing it by an inch.

"It's easier to move when you're in a stance, but that's for your first lesson."

Eren thought that this was the first. It felt more like an introduction to evading attacks than an assessment.

Something dark flashed in Levi's eyes and he lunged forward.

"Shit!"

Eren barely dodged the swing kick. He scrambled back and almost lost his balance.

"Stay on your toes."

Levi swung another kick – faster.

Eren didn't have enough time to react. He took one step back, and the top of Levi's foot caught his arm.

Pain dulled into a throb that crawled along his arm. He clamped a hand over it and withdrew it quickly. It agitated the throb that he knew would leave behind a nasty bruise.

He heard the slide of feet, looked up, and saw the exact moment Levi's foot stuck his thigh.

Pain. A lot of pain.

"Don't worry. I understand how much pressure to apply before bones start snapping," Levi said, and swung another kick.

Eren flung himself to the side, hitting the ground and landing hard on his bruised thigh.

"I haven't given any of my punches or kicks complete power. I hope that is obvious." Levi pointed at the benches. "Go sit."

"Fuck you!" Eren spat.

It hurt to stand. Hurt to walk. Hurt to think about the shit he had gotten himself into. He wouldn't survive with an instructor like Levi.

His father had to know about this. Master Keith too. Levi absolutely was not instructor material.

Eren stormed to the office. Master, his father, and Mikasa were standing outside. Mikasa looked apathetic, as always, until she saw Eren. Her jaw slacked when she saw the red splotches on Eren's arms. She tugged hard on Mr. Jaeger's sleeve.

He saw the moment his father registered the bruises on Eren's body. Finally, his father showed some care for him.

"I want out," Eren said.

He told them about Levi attacking him with intention to land blows and the hard hits his arms and thigh had taken. He showed them the red patches on his arms, indescribable anger coursing through his veins.

He wanted to switch places with Levi. He wanted his own three shots at Levi's arms and leg.

Mikasa bristled as she listened, fists squeezing so tight that her knuckles went bone white and the bones on the back of her hands stuck out. And when Levi walked to them, she looked just about ready to take him on by herself.

"Levi," Master Keith said, voice lacking emotion, "did you purposely injure an untrained student?"

"I had my reasons."

"I'd like to hear those reasons," Eren snapped. He held his arm out for his father to inspect.

Levi sighed as if this was something he went through daily. If he treated other students as poorly as he did Eren, it was no shocker. The true shocker was how he hadn't been fired yet.

"I was assessing what type of student you are. I apologize for the boo-boos, but they were necessary," Levi explained to Eren's father.

His father was the key to whether or not Eren took lessons under Levi. Eren hoped that his father saw Levi as a danger. He tried to read his father's face, but there wasn't much to translate into emotion other than the understanding look in his eyes. The concern he showed when he saw Eren walking from the first floor's walkway was gone. It probably was because he found Eren's "boo-boos" nothing to worry about.

_Boo-boos?_ Was Levi poking at Eren's pain tolerance?

"My approach varies from student to student. I haven't encountered a student like Eren before, but I believe I know how to handle him." Levi flicked a flat look at Eren, and Eren thought: yes, Levi was mocking him. "You're the first student to complain to Master Keith. The others had their mommies and daddies do the complaining for them."

There had been others before him? Did that mean that there were other students under private training with Levi before Eren came?

It made sense.

It made complete sense.

The reason Levi couldn't become an instructor was because he sucked at handling students. Master Keith wanted him to train at least one student successfully before promoting him to a level where he would teach students by himself. If Levi couldn't handle one student, then how the hell could he be trusted to handle a class of them?

Levi was given students to train one-on-one. None of them could handle his teaching so they quit, not without their parents complaining.

That explained why Master Keith didn't look surprised, and that was why Levi hadn't gone after him when he disobeyed an order. He thought it was history repeating itself.

But then, what was he waiting for? Was he waiting for the one student who would finally shoulder the harsh training?

Levi had said that his approach varied depending on who he taught, but how much difference was there between each approach? Whatever differed, it wasn't his intimidation technique.

Eren wanted to know how many students there had been before him. Five? Ten? Fifteen? That would make Eren just another quitter. Another wimp. Another number.

"Damnit," he whispered. He had a bad feeling about what he was about to do.

He looked at Levi.

The smallest of smiles showed on Levi's face for a second. Levi asked, "Did you have a life changing revelation?"

Everyone was staring at Eren. The attention - and Master Keith's razor sharp stare - made his throat dry.

"Am I the first student?" Eren asked.

"The ninth," Levi said.

"How long did they last – the others?"

"Longer than you."

Eren was short of grinding his teeth and baring them at Levi. It was just as he expected. The bad feeling lingered like chilly spikes embedding into his stomach. "Who lasted the longest?"

"A thirteen year old girl. She lasted for seven sessions."

Seven sessions. That was seven days. Was it one week or were the classes stretched over a month? Eren could beat that. He blinked hard. Yes, he was going to do it.

He imagined a burning flame melting the chilly spikes of fear.

"It's okay if you decide to quit. You can take regular classes alongside your sister," Levi said.

Mikasa bristled again, looking hard at her toes. Levi looked at her once, huffed, and then ignored her presence.

"Your friend Armin might be interested in taking your place."

He wouldn't last one punch. Eren hated this game Levi was playing, but he was falling for all the traps. Levi knew Eren's weaknesses. He played them like cards, always drawing the best one.

Eren didn't really have a choice. He couldn't allow himself to do anything other than continue.

He didn't whisper or mutter. He didn't close his eyes or look away.

He stepped in front Levi and looked down, putting emphasis on the height difference by angling his head up.

"I'll stay," he said, staring deep into Levi's eyes, deeper than the thick curtains allowed.

"Tch." Levi grabbed Eren by the collar and jerked his head down.

Eren heard Mikasa's soft gasp behind him. He waited to hear her predatory growl, but Levi spoke first.

"It warms my heart to hear such devotion. I look forward to teaching you the art of self-defense, _Eren_."

"I look forward to learning about combat with shorter opponents, _sir_."

The grip of his shirt bunched around his neck tightened. It was amazingly gratifying to see Levi's eye twitch.

Levi knew Eren's weakness, and Eren knew Levi's.

Eren grinned.

#

"Levi seems like a harsh man," Eren's father said when they hit the first stoplight on the way home.

"So?" Eren kicked back in his seat. "He just acts tough to cover up his shortness."

"You shouldn't provoke him like that," Mikasa said and leaned forward, her head over the shoulder of Eren's seat. "I looked up the dojo on Yelp and there are reviews that claim Levi injures students when they get on his nerves."

"It's a different type of learning style," Eren said.

Three days ago he never would have thought of standing up for Levi. It was fascinating how quickly things changed.

"Listen. 'One of the instructors, Levi, slapped my son for no apparent reason. When I asked my son about it, he said that he asked if Levi was a midget.'"

"HAH!" Eren whipped his phone out of the dashboard and went to Yelp.

"He lashes out at the smallest things," Mikasa said.

"Found it!" Eren scrolled past several five star reviews and one four star review. The Academy had a high rating of four and a half stars averaged from sixty-eight reviews. "'…he said that he asked if Levi was a midget.' Oh, this is great!"

Eren skimmed through other reviews until he came across mentions of Levi. He read a few of them out.

"'All the instructors are great. They care about your ability to protect yourself...' Blah, blah, blah. '…except one assistant instructor cares more about catching you off guard. Stay away from Levi. He likes to hurt people. He pushed me into a wall when I was waiting in line for the water fountain. He said that I should have been aware of my surroundings. Not cool.'"

"'He's a bully and he uses this so called shorty privilege to excuse his actions.'

"Oh! Listen to this one. Hahaha! 'If you are tall, don't attend class when Levi is assisting. Don't spar with him either. He uses his shortness as an excuse to go hard on taller people.'"

Levi's weakness was well known. If Eren wanted to keep himself in one piece, he'd have to be cautious. Then again, most of the reviews that said Levi was violent were old. They were from last year and beyond. The ones from this year didn't have his name in them.

There were a few that prided Levi on his skill and knowledge, but they were from parents. Levi must have restrained himself in front of them. The reviewers who were victims of Levi's abuse were older teenagers and adults.

"He sounds like fun," Eren said.

"You hated him less than an hour ago," his father said. "What changed?"

"I had a life changing revelation." Eren remembered Levi's barely there smile he almost hadn't seen. Then he remembered Levi's twitchy eye when he made a dig at his height. "Everyone who quit is a coward. I'm not going to be one of them."

Eren's entire life wasn't noteworthy. He hadn't achieved anything.

_This summer he would actually have to exert effort to achieve something._

Effort. Pfft._ Eren chuckled to himself. He hated that word._

Eren still hated that word, but effort was necessary. He had the right idea before he stepped foot in Master Keith's office.

He wasn't going to be a prop, he was going to be someone. He wasn't going to be a stepping stone for Levi; he was going to be a fucking spring that shot Levi into the sky. And instructor Levi – not assistant instructor Levi - would never feel short again.

Eren smiled at the blue sky through the window.

He _was _going to achieve something this summer, and he was going to give it all the effort he had.

#

That night Eren couldn't go to sleep.

"Holy shit. Was I high?"

He flung an arm over his forehead. What the _hell_ was he thinking in the car?

#

"I signed up yesterday too," Armin said. "My mom took me an hour before they closed. Levi was still in there. He was assisting one of the kiddie classes."

Eren tongued the straw of his smoothie, mind a thousand miles away from Armin. He was exhausted from a sleepless night.

His first session with Levi was tomorrow, Wednesday. He was _not_ prepared. The bruises Levi inflicted on him were constant reminders of what he was up against. The forms his father signed stated that the dojo was not responsible for any injuries. Eren knew that didn't mean Levi had the right to beat him up, but that didn't stop Eren from thinking it.

The straw stabbed the roof of Eren's mouth. The pain brought him back to the present.

He was sitting outside Jamba Juice with his friends. They had stopped on their way back from the Shiganshina public library. Armin had checked out a tote bag full of adult romance novels.

"Don't ask," Armin had said.

"Won't tell," Eren had responded.

Eren swished a mouthful of his orange smoothie. "Wha'd you say?" he asked Armin. "Kiddie classes?"

"Levi's assisting kiddie classes," Mikasa said.

Eren could tell by her tone that she was trying to get a point across. The only point that Eren got was that Levi was possibly harassing kids.

"Don't say it like that," Armin said. "He's sweet to the kids. He doesn't smile at them, but he praises them and is very patient."

"That's because he's in heaven. All those kids must make him feel like a giant," Eren said.

"Hah," Mikasa said, swirling her straw.

Armin opened his mouth as if he wanted to argue, but then he said, "You might be right."

"How old is he anyways? He might have some time to grow," Eren said.

"He's twenty. I think he's done growing," Armin said.

"Poor guy. Forever short. How tall is he anyways? Five foot two?"

Armin shrugged, said, "Around there."

Eren finished his smoothie and tossed it in the trash can across the entrance.

"Nice shot, Eren," a male voice said from behind him.

Jean waved at him even though he was literally two feet from Eren.

"Hey, Mikasa. I didn't know you'd be here," Jean said, rubbing the undercut of his hair like Eren had seen many guys do when they flirted.

"I don't see how you _would_ know," Mikasa said.

"Unless if he's lying and he stalked you," Eren said.

He wasn't in the mood to deal with Jean, let alone see Jean. He had too much on his plate to squeeze in a serving of Jean.

"Stalk you?" Jean dismissed Eren with a chuckle. "That sounds like I'm desperate."

"You drive by our house at one mile per hour and stare at our windows. I'd call that desperate."

Jean laughed and slammed his hand on Eren's head, fingers digging into his scalp hidden from sight under Eren's thick hair.

"You're funny," Jean said, voice like grating cogs.

Eren wondered what the self-defense technique was for hair grabs. Until he learned it, he would have to do with clawing at Jean's hand.

Jean slipped his hand out and grabbed an empty chair from the other outdoor table. He thanked the girls for letting him take it. They blushed and said that it was no problem.

"So," Jean said, shoving the chair between Eren and Mikasa. "I really enjoyed Thursday. Cielos Azules really lives up to its name. Beautiful starry sky that night."

"We ate indoors," Mikasa said.

"But you could see the sky from the window." Jean smiled.

"The streetlights blinded them out."

Eren exchanged looks with Armin. Jean really sucked at flirting.

"T-then maybe we can eat out again. I know an outdoor restaurant that's away from the city."

Eren laughed. Jean swung his leg to the side and stomped down, clipping Eren's ankle. He met Eren's pained eyes with a smirk.

"Let's go." Mikasa stood. She pulled Eren out of his chair by the wrist. He stumbled over his chair's legs.

"But-" Jean pushed against the table to stand. Eren thought about stabbing the straw from Armin's smoothie into Jean's hand.

"I'll call you later," Mikasa said.

Eren stuck his tongue out at Jean while Mikasa headed to the bike rack. He stuck his thumbs in his ears and wiggled his fingers for good measure. Jean copied him.

Armin sighed and pushed in their chairs.

Mikasa stopped unlocking her bike and looked at Eren and Jean. Eren stashed his hands behind his back when Mikasa just started to turn her head. Jean noticed Mikasa too late and froze, tongue out, fingers splayed.

"Are you okay, Jean? You look strange," Eren said, putting a hand on Jean's shoulder.

"I _hate_ you," Jean jerked his shoulder away.

"Vice versa."

"Eren…" Armin touched Eren's elbow. He smiled apologetically at Jean. "Let's go."

Eren went to the bike rack, satisfied to feel Jean's glower boring holes in his back.

* * *

**A/N: **Beta'd by ******imperativa**.

Okay, so for some reason I feel like this chapter wasn't the best.

I tried to make some parallels but I think the ones I wanted to get across weren't obvious. One of them being Eren's realization of Levi's situation. (You know how in anime where the character thinks about something for a ridiculously long time and the characters in the background just sort of stand there and smirk or do whatever?)

Next chapter: Eren's first lesson with Levi.


	4. The Beginning

The Beginning

* * *

The small victory against Jean's pride sated Eren for ten minutes. The smile on his face vanished with a blink. Tomorrow he would return to Master Keith's dojo and face his first class with Levi. After throwing a sharp jab at Levi's shortness and playing against it with a stare down, Eren had surely signed himself to a session of serious ass whipping.

Levi would have his ways to work beatings into their lessons. Hell, Eren saw a future "pain endurance" lesson scheduled not too far from today. Was Levi planning on making his first official student out of Eren? Or was he going to run Eren's ass out and holdout for someone who would bow down and make the classes less of a pain?

Eren slipped his thumb around the bike handle to dig its nail into his finger. The pain woke the part of his thoughts that he needed. He couldn't bow out. He wouldn't. No matter what Levi threw at him, he had to harden his skin and ride the pain out. "Eren Jaeger" wouldn't be an additional name to the list of cowards who broke under Levi's authority. Eren would be the first name on the list of students who survived one-on-one lessons with a devil man as short as his patience.

"Eren?" Armin pedaled next to him. "You have an angry look on your face."

"It's called determination." Eren looked forward and grinned. He could almost see his victory on the forest trail ahead of him.

#

The next day, Eren threw open the dojo's door and strode in with an erect posture. The door's fan blew his hair wildly, chilled his skin, and riled him up.

"If you walk like that, people will think you have a stick up your ass," Mikasa said.

Eren flipped a long strand of hair off her shoulder. "If you don't tie your hair back, it'll get in the way of training."

Armin was on the first floor talking with two other students. One was a brunette with fluffy bangs, her long hair tied in a ponytail. The other was a short bald boy with the shadow of dark hair on his scalp. They didn't look like new students; their bodies were toned and their sweats looked heavily worked in.

Eren and Mikasa joined the small group, Eren checking out the rest of the class as they walked. There were a few others there – most of them taller than Eren. Unlike Levi, he didn't mind being one of the shortest. He still had years to grow, so if his height ever became a concern, he wouldn't have to worry for long.

"I'm Sasha and this is Connie," the brunette said.

"Mikasa. Eren," Mikasa said as she pointed to herself and then Eren.

"You three must be the new students Master told us about," Sasha said.

"Ready to get your asses whipped?" Connie slapped Eren's back and grinned boyishly.

"Ow," Eren said dully. He rubbed the numb spot on the side of his back and decided then that Connie was a potential friend – if he didn't hit Eren anymore.

"Sorry." Connie looked at his hand and laughed. "After training for a while you forget how strong you really are. You're going to be taking Levi on, right?" Connie's face became shadowed. He suddenly looked like a completely different person.

Surprised by the sudden turn of emotions, which also showed on Sasha's face, Eren's determination to last the entire summer with Levi got blown into the wind.

Some students looked over, their attention snapped away from their conversations.

"Eren is," Mikasa said.

The students looked at Eren in one collective movement of turning heads. They eyed him, and as if they decided that Eren wasn't going to last long, turned back to their friends.

"Don't piss him off," Connie said, glancing at the students who had overheard.

"Too late," Mikasa said. "Eren indirectly made fun of Levi's height."

"Oh shit," Connie said, stepping back and slightly doubling forward as if Mikasa's words had taken the air from his lungs. "You're _dead_."

"No you're not," Sasha said. "Don't listen to Connie. Everyone exaggerates Levi's personality."

"I told him not to worry about his height because I was shorter than him and he _slapped_ me." Connie clawed his hands at his sides.

"He challenged you to a sparring match, and totally owned you," Sasha said.

"He's been training since he could stand! I haven't even been here a year. It was totally unfair."

The two started bickering about the challenge that Eren later learned had lasted only a few seconds. Connie had thrown a punch and Levi had stepped to the side, slapped Connie's cheek, and then pushed Connie to the floor. He hadn't done a leg sweep or a fancy flip – he literally shoved Connie on the ground. Connie said that it wasn't proper to shove someone as opposed to doing a proper takedown; Sasha said that Levi was doing him a favor by keeping it simple. A takedown would have been harder on Connie's body.

Armin was enjoying himself, chuckling at Connie and Sasha with the brightest look in his eyes. Enduring this class couldn't be that bad if Armin was smiling like he had seen the light. Eren smiled too.

Mikasa touched Eren's arm. Levi had arrived. Eren's smile dropped at the sight of Levi's darkened eyes. The corner of the man's mouth bowed up, and Eren knew that he was in for a struggle.

#

The class watched Levi escort Eren to the second floor, looking away when Levi looked at them. He made a dismissive grunt and muttered something short under his breath. Eren leaned in to catch it, and Levi turned his head at the same time. Their faces were inches apart. Levi blinked. Eren had been looking down at him – not just looking down, but leaning down.

Eren straightened up quickly. "Sorry."

"Whatever for?"

"I was – I, uh-"

Levi's eyes darkened even more until Eren was staring at a black hole that sucked the strength out of his knees.

"Nothing."

Levi instructed Eren through various stretches and told him to remember them all. The order didn't matter; so long as Eren completed all of them. Eren's first lesson was that stretching was a vital part of training. To be safe, he was to stretch his body to its full mobility. If Eren got injured during the training, he would be booted out and replaced with another student; Levi had no patience for waiting a student through an injury leave.

Eren didn't get the impression that Levi was in a rush to get through the assistant instructor initiation, requirement, or whatever it was called. When he thought about it, training someone from scratch wasn't hard. Levi only had one student to focus on, not an entire class. He could keep an eye on Eren the whole time. It made more sense for Levi to train a whole class – that was what instructors did anyways, right? Or maybe Levi was training for a specific position – but he was captain of the Wings of Freedom. If he could lead a team of elites, then couldn't he teach a darn class of regular students?

"Do you always look constipated when you think?" Levi asked.

Eren ignored the jab and asked, "Why do you have to train someone to be an instructor? Isn't it easier to train one-on-one than a class?"

"Because I'm special," Levi said. "Now stand up and kick your legs out. You've been holding that butterfly pose for too long."

"If it's so easy to train someone, why are you running through your students so quickly?"

"As I said, I'm special." Levi prodded at Eren's foot with restrained impatience. Eren could feel the power that Levi wanted to release. "Now kick your legs out."

Eren swung each leg side to side, front to back. "Is it because of your patience?"

"It's because I'm special, Sherlock. Are you going to write that down in your handy dandy notebook as a clue?"

"That's from _Blue's Clues_."

Levi boxed one of Eren's legs out from completing its swing with his own leg. "Have you had any training in self-defense before?"

"I did yesterday."

"Quite impressive." Levi's flat tone said otherwise. "So you have no knowledge of self-defense?"

Eren shook his head.

"Then we'll start off with stances." Levi led Eren to the front of the floor, centered him in front of the mirror. Levi stood next to Eren within an arm's length. "Copy me." Levi spread his legs shoulder width apart and dropped smoothly into a crouch, back ramrod straight and hands posted on his hips. "Horse stance."

Eren copied him, using the mirror to check out the details of the stance. His thighs were fit from daily bike riding, but it still burned to drop in the stance. Levi told him to go as low as he could without breaking his back posture or caving his knees in. His knees had to face forward, as if he was outlining half a square with his lower body.

"Why's it called 'horse stance'?" Eren asked.

"Because it looks like you're riding a fucking horse." Levi had a talent of sounding pissed off without changing his facial expression or changing his tone.

"What's it used for?" Sweat beaded along the back of Eren's neck.

"Martial art forms and strength development."

"What's a form?" Eren didn't think that it was common knowledge, but apparently it was; Levi stared at him with all the humor of Master Keith: none.

"You know those fancy martial art performances where people do a string of choreographed moves?"

Eren shook his head.

"On a stage? In front of an audience?"

Eren shook his head again.

"Do you live in a cave?" Levi lowered his stance further and Eren did the same, but painfully. His thighs were beginning to tremble.

"I don't pay much attention to martial arts."

"You will now. Look up some open form videos on YouTube. Study some of the techniques. Search sparring videos too. None of that professional boxing bullshit." Levi rose from the stance. Eren started to do the same, but Levi patted his head and then pushed it down like a button. "Stay."

Eren wouldn't be able to do much if he tired his legs out. He knew he already would have difficulty standing up after crouching for several minutes already.

Levi went to one of the corner shelves where the pads were and unhooked a hanging collection of laminated pages that were stringed together on a plastic ring. Eren could see a list of small font on each page as Levi flipped through them. It looked like a list of techniques.

Levi stayed on one page and read through it as he walked back to Eren. He settled into the horse stance without looking up from the paper. Eren hated how Levi acted like he was sitting back on a comfy chair, like he _enjoyed_ the pain of squats.

"All students learn stances first," Levi said, voice as calm as it was when he wasn't "riding a fucking horse". "They are the foundation of self-defense, a necessity in all martial art styles. Without stances you do not have martial arts. Each stance has a specialty, an advantage, a drawback. Students must master these stances and learn how to utilize them in combat. One of the first stances is the horse stance. Other variations include the straight horse, the hanging horse, the cross horse, and the drop horse."

"Did you memorize all that?" Eren asked.

"No, you idiot. I'm reading it off this." Levi held the packet up. Eren spotted a bulleted list at the top of the displayed page that had the prompt words for Levi's intro speech to stances. "I'll bet that you didn't remember a thing I said."

"You said a lot of horses."

"This is crap." Levi sighed. "This packet is a guideline for beginning instructors. I never looked at it before, and I thought that perhaps that was the reason for my failures in bringing up the earlier students. Yet, now that I think of it, I think that it truly is my teaching method that scares them off. What a shame."

"I saw you in Yelp reviews," Eren said.

"They love me, don't they?" Levi flipped to the next page.

"The opposite actually."

Levi sighed, "Sarcasm, Eren."

Levi tossed the packet on the floor where it made a loud scratchy sound against the mat. It landed with some of its pages spread out, displaying the title page that said in bold black letters, _Beginners (0-2 months)_. Was Eren going to have to go through the entire packet? Summer lasted for a week over two months, so there was enough time to complete it, but it seemed like an awful lot to learn. The font was small, like the words in the literature books Eren read in English.

A foot hooked around his ankle and tugged to the side. Eren fell with a grunt into a less-than-decent spill. He had twisted his body to land less painfully, but in doing so looked like a tumbling dog. He landed on his front and then flopped onto his back, staring up at Levi. Levi must have enjoyed towering over Eren. _He better enjoy it_, Eren thought, _because this is only time I'll be shorter than him._

Eren stood on legs that threatened to fold in. After a few kicks, each leg was sturdy enough to balance on without the help of the other.

"At the beginning of every class, I want you to hold the horse stance until your legs buckle – just like today. This is how we'll break your stance in," Levi said. "Speaking of which, have you decided on what days you will attend class?"

"Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays."

"Today's Tuesday."

"It'll make up for Monday."

"Mmmh. It'll be better if you come every other day," Levi said. "Human bodies like routines, so forty-eight hour gaps might be better than forty-eight hour gaps with a random seventy-two hour gap."

Eren's summer would go to hell if he only had one day in between meets with Levi, but it would make it easier to pass. If he worked longer and harder, then perhaps he could finish his training with Levi early. It would be easier to learn techniques if the time between classes was shorter; he would be able to retain the lessons better.

"Next stance is front stance. Some people here call it forward stance." Levi demonstrated and Eren followed. It was like a forward lunge; the leading leg was bent at the knee in a ninety degree angle and the rear leg was straight. "Your width should be a shoulder length apart. I shouldn't be able to shove you like _this_." Levi pushed Eren hard enough to dislodge him, but not enough to knock him to the ground.

Eren widened his base. When Levi pushed, Eren wavered, but his feet didn't step out of place. They took turns adjusting and pushing until Eren's stance didn't get any sturdier. Levi told Eren to hold the front stance at home every morning for at least five minutes. "Right when you get out of bed and your mind is still half asleep," Levi said.

"You mean I have homework?"

"Yes, and don't think you can slack off because it's not paperwork. I can tell if you did it or not by inspecting your stances in class."

Five minutes out of the morning wasn't going to do much harm to Eren's free time. It was barely anything, but it bothered him that every day of his summer would be touched by martial arts.

"The next stance is the cat stance, which is a variation of the horse stance. It's also called cross horse stance but that sounds awkward so everyone here refers to it as cat stance. And no, you won't be required to remember the different names. Just remember the most popular name," Levi said as he dropped into a horse stance. He turned one foot so that its heel pointed at the instep of the other foot. He shifted his weight over the knee that hadn't moved from the initial horse position.

Eren found it easy to copy. As with the horse stance, Levi had him hold the position until his knees strained and sweat formed on his neck. Levi pushed him to the ground and then commented on how quickly Eren was learning.

The final stance was the sparring stance. There were two variations: orthodox and southpaw. Orthodox was for the right-handed and southpaw was for the left-handed, but all students were expected to use both. Levi added that there were more variations that involved details, such as fist and foot placement. Each martial art style had different variation. The one their school taught was the one used in taekwondo, which had the fists close to the face.

As students progressed, they had the option of tailoring the stance to their benefit. Some students liked their hands lower because their torsos were long and made easy targets. Others liked their hands close to the top of their heads because they were shorter – though it left their lower bodies open to low blows.

"Which is why I start a sparring match with a hybrid of both," Levi said. "After analyzing my opponent's gears and tics, I adjust my stance."

Levi circled Eren and straightened his fists with brisk movements. He dug his foot under the heel of Eren's rear leg until Eren got the hint to keep his heel up.

"Put most of your weight on your front foot… Lean forward – not too much... Don't hunch. You are not the hunchback of Notre Dame… I hate teaching this stance." Levi stepped back after completing a circle around Eren without picking out a fault. "Try to absorb this exact position. Practice it every morning after your cat stance. Hold it for just a minute. Stand in front of a mirror and if you can't see half your face between your fists, you're doing it wrong."

They went through all four of the stances in order, and then Levi called them out at random. The first few times Levi had to pause to make corrections. After countless run-throughs, the corrections dwindled to none.

It must have been at least twenty minutes of strictly stances. With twenty minutes left of class, Levi taught Eren how to transition from one stance to the other without breaking form. Eren caught on easily, and by the time Mikasa and Armin's class was done, Eren had successfully learned transitions.

"Thus concludes our first class," Levi said. He saluted Eren, Eren saluted back, and class was dismissed.

"Did he hurt you?" Mikasa grabbed his hand when he walked off the floor.

"Not really. It was better than yesterday." Eren paused. It hadn't been bad at all. What about this had frightened the other students away? "It was pretty fun, actually. I wonder why the others left."

"Because it gets worse," Levi said into Eren's ear.

Eren jumped to the side, landing on Armin's bare foot.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry," Eren apologized, and then asked Levi, "How'd you get here so quietly? I didn't even hear you."

"Dancing feet make an excellent weapon," Levi said.

"Dancing feet?" Eren said.

"Next lesson. Ask your father if you can come every other day. Tell him what I told you about the routine. I'm sure he'll agree with it – seeing that he's a doctor." Levi waggled his fingers in Eren's face. "Toodles." He saluted the floor before walking off to the first floor where the next regular class was starting.

"Toodles?" Eren said and wrinkled his nose. "_Toodles?_"

"It's a preppy way of saying 'bye'," Armin said.

"I know that, but _toodles_?"

_What the hell kind of twenty year old martial artist uses "toodles"?_

"Come on, Eren. Let's go get some smoothies and celebrate your first lesson." Mikasa said and pulled Eren to the bench where his sandals were. She toed them out for him.

Eren slipped them on and then remembered why his friends were dressed in sweats just like he was. "That's right, you guys trained today too. How was your first lesson?"

It was like Eren shot a line of enthusiasm into Armin's veins. The blond brightened up like the sun after a dreary night. "It was _amazing_!"

"He said it," Mikasa said, smiling softly. "Instructor Erwin is very knowledgeable."

"He's _amazing_," Armin gushed, pupils enlarging with alarming speed. "Everything was _amazing_."

"Are you high?" Eren laughed.

"He was when Erwin demonstrated a takedown on him," Mikasa said.

"_A takedown? _No way."

"Yes way! And it was _amazing_!" Armin said.

"What are you guys doing learning takedowns so early?" Eren asked.

"It was an extra. Erwin spends the last fifteen minutes of class teaching us fun stuff," Armin said.

"Let me guess. _Amazing_ stuff."

Armin gave two thumbs up. "Yes!"

#

After a round of smoothies, Eren and his friends went to Armin's home to play video games. The latest PC game that Armin had bought was an RPG that took place in a world where humans were hunted down by man eating giants. Eren sucked at it, Mikasa was a natural gamer, and Armin made a better game strategist on the side.

"Are you guys coming to class tomorrow?" Armin asked while Mikasa scrambled a giant's brains with quick flicks of her controller stick.

"Probably Thursday," Eren said.

"If you guys come tomorrow, I'll be there," Armin said, surprising Mikasa into braving a hit from the giant and instantly dying.

"By yourself?" Mikasa asked.

"I'll have Sasha and Connie." Armin smiled brightly. He didn't show any discomfort at the idea of doing something without his best friends at his side. Eren wondered if this had to do with how "amazing" today's class had been or if Armin felt comfortable enough around Sasha and Connie.

Eren didn't remember the last time Armin did something as social as martial arts without feeling uncomfortable or without Mikasa or Eren at his side. Eren wondered what it was about Sasha and Connie that Armin liked. He remembered how Armin's blue eyes had brightened to look like the late morning sky and how Armin had giggled at Sasha and Connie's harmless squabbling.

Jealousy bubbled in Eren's stomach. One look at Mikasa biting her lip told him that she felt the same.

"I thought you liked them. You laughed at a lot of their jokes," Mikasa said.

"They're really fun. Ymir and Christa too. They get along really well." Armin's eyes brightened more, and Eren wondered when the next "amazing" was going to pop up.

Mikasa restarted her mission and launched into the virtual city with her characters 3D Maneuver Gear.

"What's wrong?" Armin asked, clouds passing over the light in his eyes.

"Nothing. It's just that it's been a while since you hung out with someone other than us," Eren said.

"It's uncharacteristic of you," Mikasa added.

"People change," Armin said, offended. Now there was a full cloud over his eyes. For the rest of the video game mission, nobody said anything.

#

When Mikasa and Eren stepped out of Armin's apartment it was just ten minutes until their curfew. Eren remembered that he still needed to replace the lights on his bike. Mikasa brought it up, and he told her with a deep sigh, "Yes, I know. I keep forgetting. Remind me tomorrow."

They rolled their bikes onto the sidewalk – and stopped. A small group of older looking teens were standing across the street. There were three of them, and they all were staring at Mikasa and Eren as if they were the most peculiar things to appear in town.

It wasn't hard to tell in the dimming night that the guys were all extremely fit and continuously worked out. They were dressed like stereotypical jerks – the same kind that were douchebags in the media.

Eren couldn't tell what they were doing standing outside. They didn't have anything on them that hinted towards an activity. Eren doubted that they were just going for a walk outside. There was something about their presence that tingled Eren's flesh with caution. Then he saw it: a spray can in the one of the guy's hands. The guy noticed Eren's attention and slowly brought it behind his back.

"Hi," Mikasa said with a wave.

"Hey," one of the guys said back, his voice gruff and nothing like a teenager's voice should sound like.

Mikasa mounted her bike, acting like there wasn't a group of dangerous looking guys staring at them. Eren mounted his bike too, though less smoothly. He almost fell off the other side. He expected the guys to laugh at him, but they didn't. They continued down the sidewalk without another look, their shoes scuffing the sidewalk.

"What the hell?" Eren said when they pedaled around a street corner. "Was it just me or were those guys hella creepy?"

"It wasn't just you," Mikasa said.

"Maybe-," Eren said, but stopped himself.

Mikasa probably didn't know about the neighborhood bullies that Armin had told him about. They probably were going to spray paint something on Armin's property. He stood on his pedals and coasted as he slipped his phone out of his pocket. He called Armin.

"Eren?"

Eren could hear the clouds in Armin's voice.

"There's a group of creepy looking dudes in front of your house. One of them has a spray can."

"Those trash heads." Armin sighed loudly. "Thanks for the warning."

"No prob. Mikasa and I had a stare contest with them, and then they left. They might come back though."

"Thanks so much. I really appreciate it." Armin hung up.

Mikasa was ahead of Eren on the street, but he had a feeling that she picked up some of his part of the conversation.

* * *

**A/N: **Beta'd by **imperativa**.

For those of you waiting for ereri, hang in there. It'll start off slow, and then speed up. I hope you enjoy the martial arts! References I will be using for this fic: my own experience, the internet.

Next chapter: Eren's second lesson goes awry when Levi utilizes a questionable teaching method, and the ereri train takes off at an irritatingly slow pace.


	5. The Real Beginning

The Real Beginning

* * *

Eren did his front stance and sparring stance exercise in front of his father's closet mirror on Wednesday and Thursday morning. He held the front stance longer than five minutes, until his knees buckled and he had to lie on the ground to regain strength. He held the sparring stance for a minute longer than Levi had instructed, perfecting the placement of each fist and the angle of his pivoted foot.

At first he was stiff, and he couldn't picture himself dancing around sparring opponents as easily as the Wings of Freedom did. After a few minutes, he could feel his shoulders and fists relax even though he kept his stance as still as possible. On Thursday morning he smiled as the strain in his shoulders lessened in the last minute. It was as if the stance clicked with his body and became a preset position.

This was the stance breaking that Levi had wanted.

Unfortunately…

Eren fell to his knees when he took his first step away from the mirror.

…the extra time in his front stance had weakened his knees considerably.

#

"You over did yourself," Mikasa said as Eren wobbled into the kitchen to eat their late breakfast.

"I'll be fine in an hour." Eren ignored the long stare from his father at the island counter and kept his eyes on the ground. He counted the wood paneling as he stepped over each one.

"You should sit out today's class. You clearly strained yourself," his father said.

Eren grumbled nonsense words and filled his plate with cold scrambled eggs. He hadn't stood in the front stance as long as he did the past morning. He had worn himself out very quickly in comparison to yesterday's forty minutes of front stance endurance. He had tried to hold himself out for thirty minutes, but his knees were calling it quits twenty minutes in, so he switched to the sparring stance.

It was hard to make the transition without a break in between, but once his knees locked, he had been able to hold the sparring stance while the burn in his leading leg tapered out to a mild throb.

He had fooled himself into thinking that his legs were fine. They weren't, and it began to dawn on him that he would have difficulty in today's lesson.

Levi had said that the classes would get worse. Eren hoped it was a slow increase in difficulty. If Levi suddenly pulled the big guns on him… _I won't last another lesson._

"Why do I bother? You won't listen. Mikasa, I'm putting Eren in your care." Eren's father filled his coffee canister with tea from the stove's kettle. He poured a mug of tea for Eren too. "This should help a little."

"Medicinal herbs. Yay."

Eren forgot that his father had served boiling tea and filled his mouth with his first sip.

He spewed hot tea over the table cloth.

#

_I'm gonna die today._

Eren's legs were sore, his thighs still tight. He didn't know how he'd be able to hold the horse stance for the beginning of class. He walked into the dojo thirty minutes before class started with Mikasa, trying to come up with a way for him to get through the horse stance exercise. If Levi walked off the floor while Eren stretched, it would be easy to hide his worn legs. It was during the actual training that Eren would have no chance of hiding his pain.

Levi wasn't on any of the floors. The first floor was used by a kiddie class, trained by the former Wings of Freedom captain. The second floor was unused. Levi's bag was under the far end of the benches. Chills ran through Eren's bones. He swiveled his head quickly, positive that Levi was in sight. Levi was short, so it was possible that he was standing behind one of the portable kicking bags that were lined along the center of the floor.

Mikasa checked the floor out, looking around the punching bags. The previous class must have finished off with pad work and didn't bother to clean up. Eren wondered if this was set up by Levi for their private session. If they were doing a lot of leg work, Eren was toast. He could handle arm work though. If he was lucky, today would be all about upper body movement. He knew better than to rely on his luck. His luck got shitty when he needed it the most.

Eren paced on the floor, hoping that a miracle would happen and that his thighs would unclench. It was like someone had a fist in his leg and was squeezing the muscles into a thick cord. Tuesday's in-class stance work had tired him out enough. The next day he was sore, but he still went through with his stance homework. He had gone past his assigned time limit, thinking the extra practice would help. It hadn't. He was sore the next morning too, even more so, but he still did the stance, still went overboard.

"Sometimes you have to use your head," his father had said when he first learned how to ride a bike. He had pedaled off into the street, thinking that he would get the hang of it right away. He had nearly avoided crashing into a stop sign, and smacked tire first into a parked car.

Years later and he still didn't use his head. He did, however, avoid biking into cars.

Eren tested his thigh's mobility by stepping into a slight lunge. It burned, but if he pushed through the pain to a certain level, he was able to hold it with only a mild twinge. It was like sitting out in the eye of a hurricane.

The restroom door opened and Levi stepped out, dressed in the same outfit he had worn when Eren signed up for classes. "You're early," Levi said.

"I had nowhere else to be," Eren said.

"Great. We have an extra twenty minutes to add to our session."

Eren's luck truly _was_ shitty.

"I'll see you after class," Mikasa said, touching his wrist before she saluted off the floor. She went down the hall, out of sight, probably to watch the first floor class or talk with some of her classmates in the lobby.

Eren watched after her, wishing that she would stand up to her big sister role and keep an eye on him while she had the time. He could feel judging eyes on the back of his head. He wondered how long he could stall by staring at the empty hall. When it felt like a minute had passed, he looked at Levi. The man was stretching at the front of the floor, eyes closed.

Levi didn't say anything until Eren was sitting next to him. Eyes still closed, Levi asked, "Isn't she your sister?"

"Adopted sister."

"That's what I was thinking. She looks nothing like you." Levi exhaled quietly and slipped into splits.

Eren tried to sit down without making any noise. If he made a sound, Levi would be able to tell that he was in pain. Maybe Levi already knew he was in pain, but he just wasn't commenting on it.

"We're the exact same height," Eren said, and then held his breath. Levi didn't respond, so he assumed he was safe for the time being. "What are we doing today?"

"Footwork."

"Stances?" Eren waited for an answer with bated breath.

"Footwork."

"What's that?"

"If you wait I'll show you."

Footwork didn't sound as physically demanding as stances. Maybe it was foot positioning for kicks and other techniques. Eren hoped it was as simple as that. He also hoped that his hope didn't fail him as much as his shitty luck did.

"Did you do your homework?" Levi asked. He leaned forward until his upper torso lay on the mats, his toes still pointed at the ceiling. He rested his cheek on the floor and grimaced. "This floor better be clean."

"Yup." Eren had been hoping that Levi had forgotten about it.

"Five minutes, right?" Levi opened his eyes and stared at Eren as if he already knew what to hear in response.

Eren couldn't lie. Levi already knew.

"I might have overdone myself…" Eren kept his eyes connected to Levi's. He wouldn't show fear. He had to own his mistake and show Levi that he wasn't scared of the repercussions, though he was internally quivering.

He wondered how disciplining was carried out in dojos. Would Levi challenge him to a sparring match just like Connie had been? Would Levi declare him incompetent and unfit to be a student? Hell, Eren hadn't thought about the possibility of flunking out of Levi's class. The other students hadn't lasted through the classes, but Eren didn't remember if they all quit on their own accord. He had thought they were scared off, but had all of them left in fear?

If Eren didn't quit because he couldn't handle Levi, then he would be forced to quit because of his disobedience. Levi had already made it clear that he expected the best from Eren. Extra practice, as beneficial as it sounded, made Eren sound like he was trying to better Levi. On a deeper level, it meant Eren was insulting Levi's order.

"I'm not going to spank you," Levi said.

"Huh?"

"You look like a kid waiting for a punishment. Are you waiting for Mommy to pull your diaper down and slap your bottom black and blue?" Levi's voice was impossibly dull, and it only angered Eren more.

"My Mommy's dead," Eren spat, and then to counter Levi's insult said, "And at least I'm not short like a kid."

Eren's spine felt tightly coiled, the back of his shirt felt too tight, and his eyelids felt heavy. He felt like an inferno packed into a tight container, the heat bursting to get through.

How dare Levi use Eren's mother in a joke like that.

There was no way that he knew the reality, but Eren couldn't help himself from thinking that Levi should know. For someone with a sharp tongue and insults loaded in the back of his throat like a loaded gun, Levi should know the topics to never touch upon.

That meant Eren would have to tell him, would have to verbalize it, would have to _think_ about it.

Eren hadn't spoken about his mother in years. It was locked in the back of mind with a fancy lock that few keys could open. His father, Mikasa, and Armin had their keys. Would he have to give a key to Levi as well?

"Eren," Levi said.

"Don't ask me. I don't want to _think_." Eren snapped his arms across his chest, realizing how childish he was acting and how he was presenting Levi with an opportunity to pull another kid joke. However, as he had told Levi, he didn't want think, and so he didn't.

He saw Levi move in the side of his vision. "If you don't think, how will you learn?" Levi asked.

"I don't want to think about _her_, not _this_." Eren stood and allowed his face to show the pain he felt when he was halfway up.

"Then I'll teach you footwork. You can save the horse stance for when your leg feels better." Levi got the laminated packet from the shelf and flipped to the first page. "I knew you would outdo yourself. My assessment told me you were the exact student to do that."

Eren turned his cheek, ears burning. "So?"

"I haven't worked with a student like you yet. You're determined and don't show your fear by quavering. Instead you look constipated and angry while you struggle to hide it."

"Well I've never worked with someone like you. You're freaking tiny."

"If I can't talk about your mother, you can't talk about my height." Levi pointed a sharp nail in Eren's face.

Eren parried the hand without a thought. He had a brief moment to reflect on his idiocy before he was shoved. His knees instantly buckled and he dropped to all fours.

"You will respect me or I will remove you from the program. Got it, _number nine?_" Levi rubbed the spot on his hand where Eren had swiped him. Eren hadn't realized how hard he had struck.

"I'm number one," Eren said. "I'm gonna finish this shitty program."

"You won't be until I get promoted. Now get on your feet so I can show you how to move."

#

Footwork was just as Eren had hoped it would be. It was simple, almost painless, and it worried Eren that he was missing something. Footwork was just the use of his feet when moving between techniques. There were different steps, just like in dance.

"The main categories of footwork are linear, circular, and triangular. They are what they sound like. Linear is advancing and retreating in straight lines. Circular is circling your opponent. Triangular is advancing and retreating diagonally, like a triangle. The footwork within the categories is categorized in steps. The steps I already taught you," Levi read off the packet, glancing up between sentences to make sure Eren was listening.

Eren was listening, not processing. He tried to make sense of Levi's words, but they were just sounds in his mind.

"You aren't listening," Levi said. He tossed the packet to the side without looking at Eren.

"I learn better by doing," Eren said.

"Tell me you at least remember the steps I taught you."

"Whole step, half step…shuffle step…spin step, cross step…" Eren was sure there was one more. He drew out the last syllable of "step" while he visualized all the steps he had learned. He blanked out on cross step, lingered on it for too long, and then said that he forgot the last one.

"Slide step," Levi said patiently.

"That too." Eren nodded.

"Can you demonstrate them for me?"

Whole step was the easiest. It was basically stepping forward with the rear leg and putting it in front of the other. Half step was a step forward with Eren's leading leg. Shuffle step was less easy, but still simple. Eren's lead foot took a half step back, and then he took two full steps forward. When done quickly, it looked like a little cha-cha. Spin step was a spin step. Cross step was a quick crisscross of the legs. Slide step was just a half step with a slight jump of the leading leg and a slide of the rear leg.

"Can you remember those?" Levi asked curtly. Eren nodded. "Using only those steps, avoid me." And with those terse directions, Levi stomped on Eren's foot.

"OW!" Eren stumbled back, his foot a deep throb that made it feel like it was expanding into nothingness. "I can't feel my freaking foot!"

"Each time I touch your foot is a pushup at the end of class."

Eren half stepped back from another stomp.

It wasn't too bad. Eren could half step back every time Levi approached. He also had the punching bags to use as shields. It was when Levi charged at Eren that the difficulty level jumped several notches.

Instead of following Eren at a slow, calculable pace, Levi staggered his speed. He would walk, and then lunge into a sprint without warning. It got harder to use strictly the footwork when Levi started throwing fakes.

Eren stumbled over his feet when he tried to avoid one fake that led into another fake. After falling into the traps of four fakes in a row, he learned the importance of staying on his toes and utilizing the shuffle step.

He thought of it as the step ladder his freshman P.E. teacher used to develop agility.

Levi stomped on both his feet at the same time.

"You don't have to do it so hard," Eren complained. He kicked the numbness out of his feet while keeping an eye on Levi for any subtle movements.

He wondered if there was an ulterior motive for this lesson. Maybe he was supposed to study Levi's body for the tiny giveaways that announced his future movements. His shirt was fitted to his body, so it was easy to see the subtle twitches of his upper body. His sweats were too baggy to see the figure of his legs, but his feet were completely visible.

Eren waited for a toe to twitch or bones to shift closer to the flesh covering them, but nothing happened that led into a movement.

"Feet better now?" Levi asked.

"How much longer are we gonna do this?" Eren settled back into a loose sparring stance.

"Quit complaining or I'll stomp your foot in two."

Levi rummaged through the plastic container at the base of the corner shelf, and when he didn't find what he wanted, went to check out the other floor's supply.

Eren stretched his legs out while he waited, curious of what Mikasa and Armin were learning on the other side of the divisor wall. He could hear their shouts and the scratch of sliding feet down the hall. Someone female yelped, something large fell on the mat, and laughter scattered throughout the floor.

He wanted to peek around the wall and see what the class was learning. They were ahead of him, but he was learning at a faster pace. If he put 110% effort into his training, he'd be done with the beginner's course in less than two months, but he was signed up for the entire summer. Maybe after he completed the first course, Levi would be promoted, and Eren would be let off - or he'd suffer through the immediate course until summer ended.

"How do your legs feel? Worse or better?" Levi asked when he returned with a foam padded sword.

Eren eyed it, apprehension dripping from his voice when he responded. "It actually hurts less if I keep moving. Um, what is that for?"

"How sore are you? Do you have full range of motion or does it hurt?"

If Eren exaggerated his pain, he could get out of class early. He did have a full range of motion, but it hurt to reach the limits. He figured that meant he _didn't_ have full mobility.

Levi sighed and thwacked the sword against his palm. "If I chased you with this sword, would you be able to evade?"

"Nope. Thigh's kind of killing me." Eren massaged the front of his thigh where it met his knee.

"Does it hurt to touch?"

"No but-"

"Then you're fine."

"No I'm not. I really outdid myself. I did forty minutes of front stance training yesterday and today."

Levi slapped the sword against his palm again. "If you did forty minutes yesterday, it's unlikely that you did forty minutes today. Twenty minutes is more like it."

"I'm serious. My legs really hurt."

Levi relaxed his stance and swung his weight to one hip. He idly flipped the sword over his shoulder and did a quick elevator scan of Eren's body.

"I'm impatient. If you get injured, training will have to be put aside, and I don't have time to wait for injuries to heal."

"I'm not injured," Eren said, "but if I train right now I will get injured."

"You were doing fine with the foot stomping." Levi brought the sword down in front of him, making Eren jump back, and let the momentum carry it into a quick spin. "But if you say you're sore to the touch, then perhaps we should move onto something else… Are only your legs sore?"

Eren nodded.

"Then I'll teach you some blocks. Next time, don't exceed yourself. It's good that you learned early."

Levi had Eren sit with his back to the punching bag nearest the mirror.

"Don't think you got away from the sword," Levi said and poked the side of Eren's head with the sword's tip.

"Are you going to hit me with that thing?" Eren backed up, forgetting that he was already backed against the punching bag.

Levi poked Eren's head again, hard enough to bring a little pain to Eren's senses. "Did you look up any martial arts videos?" Levi asked.

"I forgot."

"You forgot the videos and overdid your stance homework. Convenient."

Levi dropped the sword on Eren's head. He let it sit there, made a guttural sound in his throat, and then smacked Eren's head with it. He brought it up, then down. Up, down. He did repeatedly until he brought it down with a crack that made Eren yelp.

"Why aren't you blocking? I've killed you eight times."

"You didn't tell me to block! And if that was a real sword, how the hell would I block?" Eren grabbed the sword by the blade and threw it to the side.

"If this was a real sword, your hand would have been cut, and if this was a real sword, I would have slit your throat."

Levi swung the sword to connect with the junction of Eren's neck and shoulder. Eren turned his head to avoid getting swiped in the cheek.

"I don't know how to block."

"Then I'll keep hitting you."

Levi didn't strike hard. He swung fast, but at the last moment slowed down so he could control how much pressure he applied. Eren curled in on himself, but Levi pressed him back with the sole of his foot.

"Don't cower. Block," Levi said, leaning into his foot.

"Then teach me!" Eren tried to pry Levi's foot off. He tried pulling it off by the ankle, then by digging his fingers under the sole, then by tickling it.

Levi paused in mid strike, sword a foot away from Eren's neck. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked as Eren groped the curve of his heel.

"Get your foot off me!"

"You won't get it off with a foot massage."

"I'm trying to tickle you off me." Cheeks burning, Eren futilely tugged at Levi's ankle.

"I'm not ticklish." Levi continued the onslaught of strikes.

"I don't know how to block. Why don't you teach me?"

"It's more effective this way."

Eren jerked his head back and stared straight into Levi's eyes. "How?"

Levi's swing swerved and caught Eren in the face. He chambered for another strike to the face.

Eren pressed his forearms together into a shield in front of his face, angling it slightly up. He tucked his chin down, and the sword smacked his arms. He deepened the angle when Levi aimed at the top of his head.

"If I put more force into it, I could bruise your bones," Levi said.

Eren peeked between his shields. "Then what block am I supposed to use?"

"You're supposed to parry, but I haven't taught you that yet, so that block is acceptable for the time being."

"You haven't taught me how to block either."

Eren was forced to snap his shields back together when Levi jabbed the blade at his mouth.

"Keep blocking or I'll shove this down your throat."

#

The only "official" block that Eren did was the triangle block. He had unconsciously done it when a sudden itch sprung in his back. He had reached over his shoulder to scratch it at the same time Levi swung for his neck.

When Levi aimed at his neck, he folded his arm over his shoulder and tucked his head in so that his arm took the hit. Pleased, Levi eventually removed his foot from Eren's chest and squatted next to him to show the mechanics of the block.

"Use this against attacks to the head. Always tuck your head in and into the block. If you don't, you'll get hit by your own arm." Levi adjusted Eren's block so that his elbow pointed higher up. "Tuck your head in tighter."

"I am."

"No you aren't." Levi grabbed Eren by the roots of his hair and yanked his head closer to his elbow. He pressed Eren's head into the block until Eren was practically leaning over from the force. "Stay upright," Levi snapped.

"You're pushing too hard and it hurts." Eren gasped at a sharp tug.

"Press your head into the block. Not like that… Turn your head into it – not like that. You'll break your nose like that."

After a little more shuffling and bickering, Eren had the block in the proper position.

Levi rubbed the tips of his fingers together and made a face. "Please tell me you wear hair gel."

"I don't."

"Ew." Levi rubbed his fingers on Eren's sweats.

#

At the end of class Eren did his thirty-seven pushups. Levi lied in front of him and counted out every complete pushup. It wasn't complete unless Eren's chest brushed the floor. Including his screw-ups, Eren did a total of fifty-one pushups.

Eren slumped onto his back when he was done, arms limp. He closed his eyes and let go of his body. There was something spiritually awakening about lying on the ground and doing nothing.

"Are you dead?"

A foot nudged Eren's shin. He cracked open an eye. Levi was standing over him with _two_ padded swords. Something on one sword glinted.

"Uh, Levi? What are those-"

Levi chambered them over his shoulders; his pupils focused to a sharp point, and then he brought the swords down on Eren's face.

#

"You bleed a lot," Armin said, dabbing at Eren's cracked lip with a damp paper towel.

"That asshole," Mikasa said, dabbing at Eren's scratched cheek with a soaked paper towel.

"I'm fine," Eren said, tasting blood from his tongue as he spoke.

Levi returned from Master Keith's office with an ice cold water bottle. He blankly stared into Mikasa's death stare.

"Apparently the second sword I used still had some plastic covering on it. The creases were pretty sharp," he said, dropping onto the bench next to Eren. The bench rocked back, bumping against the wall. "Oh…" Levi crossed his legs and his arms. "I remember the first time I split my lip in class. I was doing pad work with this tall ass bastard who kicked too high and nailed me in the mouth."

Levi unscrewed the bottle cap and gave it to Eren. "I kicked him in the groin and now we're even."

Eren sipped some water, blood tainting it with a nasty aftertaste. "I didn't do anything to make you bash my face in," Eren said.

"I was testing your reaction time. My conclusion: it sucks."

"There are other ways to test for that," Mikasa said. "You didn't have to hurt him."

"But this is the only way to get the true reaction time when he's worn out." Levi dropped the bottle cap in Eren's lap. "You lifted your arms to block, but you're too slow. In a real life situation, you have to force yourself to act."

"This is training," Mikasa said and snatched the cap from Eren's lap. She screwed it onto the bottle with one firm twist. "And Eren's a beginner. You shouldn't treat him so harshly."

"I can say the same about you. You flipped that poor girl pretty hard." Levi reached over Eren's lap to grab the bottle from Mikasa. He dropped the bottle on Eren's lap. "Drink up."

Eren guzzled down half the bottle, ignoring the bitter taste his bloody lip and tongue gave it. Armin left to toss out the paper towels he and Mikasa had used to tend to Eren's face. Mikasa got a phone call from an unnamed number, but apparently someone important, and excused herself. It must have been pretty important for her to leave Eren in the hands of Levi; she unquestionably detested him.

Armin was returning from his trip to the lobby's trashcan when Sasha bounced in front of him and started a conversation. Eren watched with a bitter stomach as Connie joined, and then two other girls. One was a short blonde, definitely shorter than Levi, and the other was a tall brunette.

Eren wondered if the painful feeling in his stomach was jealousy or loneliness, or both.

A phone buzzed, and when the ringtone started, Eren pinched his thigh to see if he was imagining the lyrics.

"_Short people got no reason to live. They got little hands. Little eyes. They walk around tellin' great big lies…_"

Levi got up with a low whistle and went to his bag.

"…_They wear platform shoes on their nasty little feet_."

Levi rolled his eyes at the phone display before answering with a caustic, "If this is about the tournament, I will piss in your mouth while you sleep."

He flashed a sharp look at Eren until the boy jerked his head to watch Armin talking with his classmates.

"You knew about it for a month. What the hell were you thinking when you scheduled – I don't care that he's a fucking celebrity. I don't _care_. The team… Hold it right there. Do you know who we're up against? The fucking _Titans_… Yeah, you heard me… What? No… I just found out the lineup today…"

Levi's voice was different. It was rude, but balanced with a touch of control. It was like the voice Eren's father used when he was dealing with difficult patients.

"That reminds me," Levi said after he hung up. "You're going to the tournament with me. Do you think you'll last that long?"

"Wanna bet?"

"There's no one to bet against." Levi blinked one eye.

It took Eren a minute to realize that Levi had winked.

* * *

**A/N: **Beta'd by **imperativa**. Give her kudos for making this fic easier to read. :)

Next chapter: Levi has respective surprises for Eren's third and fourth lessons. One surprise is welcomed, the other...not so much. Aka: the chapter where Eren finally gets a taste of the fear that drove Levi's students away.

EDIT: I FORGOT TO GIVE CREDIT TO LEVI'S RINGTONE! It's "Short People" by Randy Newman.


	6. Chapter Preview: First Battle

**IMPORTANT NOTE: **This fic will only be continued on A3O. An edited, complete version of this chapter will be up on A3O in less than a week. For an explanation, read the A/N at the bottom of the preview.

* * *

First Battle

* * *

Eren and Mikasa arrived to an empty house, as was normal. Eren's father somehow had managed to drop by a sports store and return home between appointments. There was an unopened foam roller in the living room. His father had left a note for Eren to roll his thighs out, as shown on the packaging.

It felt like he was driving bolts into his legs, but Eren rolled out both thighs for an hour in front of the TV. Later he connected his laptop to the TV so he could watch martial art tournament sets on a bigger screen. It was self-gratifying to be able to match the onscreen footwork to specific names and categories. They were the foundation of martial arts, as Levi had said. It didn't matter what style a fighter preferred, Eren noted.

In some matches, participants only wore teeth guards. It was easier to see their techniques without the bulk of the padded gear. It was hard to commit every detail to memory. Eren let the new techniques wash over him in waves, but it was tempting to store each technique for later use. He wanted to copy the fighters.

If he studied effective fakes and counter attacks, learned how to find openings to fit them in, and successfully used them, he would make one devastating fighter.

He rolled his thigh out faster. He _would _become a devastating fighter. With Levi, the best fighter in the dojo, as his instructor, he had the tools to become the best.

"You're rolling too fast," Mikasa said. She threw a couch décor pillow at his head.

Eren threw it back. "When did you get here?"

"You didn't notice me walk in?"

"I was focusing on my studies. You know, being a good pupil." Eren slowed his rolls down until he could feel the knots in his thighs spread out.

"You've been watching videos for an hour. Take a break."

"Make me."

"I'm going out with Jean."

"_WHAT?_" Eren slipped off the roller. "_WHAT?_"

Mikasa left the living room without another word.

"Wait! Did you just say you're going out with _Jean_?" Eren shouted at the hall where she vanished into. "Mikasa! Come back! Did you say _Jean_?"

When the only sound that answered Eren was the soft knock of a door setting into its frame, Eren stood up to go after her. Something in his thigh _moved_, and in fear of something popping out of place, Eren dropped onto the couch. He massaged his thigh and didn't think of anything other than how Armin and Mikasa were changing, and it made his stomach pool with something disgusting. It was the same bitter jealousy from when he saw Armin speaking with some of the kids from his martial arts class. This time, Eren could taste it.

#

The next day Levi called Eren on his cell phone.

"How'd you get my number?" Eren asked.

"It's part of your registration forms. I called your home phone, but it seems that the line is being used."

Eren looked at the home phone on his desk. There was a black bar on the small display that said that the line was in use. The only person home at the time was Mikasa. Eren put aside his respect for personal boundaries and pressed the talk button. He held the phone to his ear and gasped when the first voice he heard matched an oval, horse-like face.

Jean. Mikasa was talking to Jean.

"Eren?" Levi said.

"I'm still here," Eren said, forgetting that he still had the home phone up to his other ear.

"Eren?" Jean said.

"Eren," Mikasa sighed. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry!" Eren yelped into both phones.

"What the hell?" Levi said.

"Are you listening in on us?" Jean asked, his voice only amused.

"No! I was just checking the phone line to see if it was being used."

"What are you talking about?" Levi asked.

"Now you know the line's being used," Mikasa said. "You can hang up now."

Eren hung up and put his cell phone down.

"Sorry, I was just checking something out," Eren said.

"Um, we can still hear you," Jean said.

"Oh shit! Wrong phone!"

This time Eren hung up the right phone. He called back Levi...

* * *

**IMPORTANT NOTE: **This fic will only be continued on A3O. An edited, complete version of this chapter will be up on A3O in less than a week.

I'm moving all my multi-chapter fics (maybe some of the one-shots) to my A3O. The link is on my bio.

A3O is more visually appealing to me and it seems that a lot of my fellow tumblr users are moving over. I already have the current chapters of "Knockout" moved. **_Kudos and comments on my A3O would be well appreciated._**

It was a pleasure posting on ffn for the short months I was here. ^^ BTW, Eren gets his ass WHIPPED in the next chapter. Not literally. But you know what I mean.


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